Dad and I have had a large infestation of fruit flies in the kitchen. Last night I came up with a fun game for family night to get rid of them. At every commercial we donned our robes and head bands and fought fruit flies. Dad took the challenge seriously and nearly knocked me down as he sprang to his feet at each commercial. The really funny thing about this photo is that I had never used the delay and wasn't sure if it would work. Then, to complicate matters, we actually saw a fly while we were waiting for the camera to take the picture and both of us wanted to get it. As can be expected, Dad won 10 to 7 but I put up a good fight. Remember when we had a FHE swatting those little black flies from our wheat in the basement on Breckenridge?
So, this was my first activity in the Stake YW's and it rocked! Well, let me include a bit of the drama before the event started. So, we were decorating right smack during the Michigan/Notre Dame game and so I first left to "run an errand" with about 7 minutes left before halftime. Then after receiving several texts about the craziness of the game, I left on my second "errand" with 8 minutes left in the game. And Wow what a finish on that game. Well, I returned to the set up and they hadn't done much and so I was thinking that all my errands were about to get me fired from my calling, but it all came together in the end. There was a red carpet for them to walk in on and most of them were really struttin their stuff. Then, we had dancing and skits. The skits were super fun and most had some crazy dancing which often included the leaders-always entertaining! There was a backdrop for group fotos as seen below with me and the whole stake YM/YW crew and then stake YW presidency. They made me sit on this stool-not flattering, but I am the newest and youngest member so I had no choice. My favorite part of the evening was when the President told all the leaders to watch the doors and then announced that the last two songs would be slow songs and all the guys had to ask a girl. Well, sheer panic ensued for most of the boys-they are not like the boys in Tonga. And I was sent to hit up the non-compliant boys. So, I went to a large group of young men in the middle of the dance floor who were dancing together and asked, "Oku mou fakaleti", which is are you guys gay? This sparked some to go find girls and I walked the straggelers over to girls to get them dancing. Anyway, the night was super fun and I am loving my new calling.
Kylie learned to play "I feel my Savior's Love on the piano in 2 short lessons. Here she is playing the first part. She did a terrific job with her talk for the Sacrament Meeting Presentation and even added a little bit on her own. Her whole family came to watch her.
We faced our fears and took the plunge by heading northward to New Jersey, home of the Tallest - Fastest roller coaster "IN THE WORLD!!!" Connie was absolutely appalled by the $12 worth of toll roads just to get there. We arrived Friday night and made the mistake of starting w/ probably the most intense ride there, "Nitro." Connie almost threw in the towel at that point.
We went on a few smaller rides while we regained our equilibrium. We took a pleasant ride on the Skywalk across the park starring down our next Goliath: KINGDAKA. To sum it up in two words, "Freakin Fast." It blasts off from 0-128 mph in just over 3 seconds down a runway, shooting you over 40 stories into the air, only to come flying back down. The winds are so fierce you can barely keep your eyes open, which may be a good thing since it's quite common to smack into oncoming bugs.
To finish off the night we rode a couple more coasters, maybe just one too many. We ended at the newest of the 12 roller coasters, BIZARRO. It turned out to be a super cool ride full of mist, fire, and loop-d-loops. But it was the loops that got the last laugh as I galloped down the exit chanting, "Bizarro, Bizarro, Bizarro," I noticed my pockets felt a bit lighter. My heart sunk as I told Connie I lost my phone. She thought I was joking, like I usually do, but soon realized this was no laughing matter. Our search was to no avail, and we drove up to our hotel defeated.
Determined to not let it get the best of us, we set out for an exciting Saturday. We started off with an awesome drive through safari. My favorite part was when the ostrich came up to Connie's window. As I told her to get the camera, Connie started screaming as the Ostrich pecked at the window. I wish I had it on video cause it was absolutely hilarious. One of Connie's favorites was the baby monkey we saw in the arms of its mother (if you look closely you can see his little head).
Well folks...after 4 years of watching movies on Preston's 12 inch laptop we finally took a small step forward and ganked one of the 4 tv's from my parents house (since there's only 2 of them now). I got creative and tried to make my own antenna type thingy, which basically didn't work at all (I did get some sound on one channel:). Then I bought a cable cord thingy and hooked the tv up to the wall thing and success! it worked! This was all inspired by the start of football season and I finally got it up and running in time for the season opening Michigan game (which rocked). Well...apparently Preston wasn't satisfied with the boxy, 18 inch sitting on the floor...which lead to the purchasing of this bad boy. I think Preston's face says it all :) Go big or go home folks.
Regretably, I decided to treat myself to a "free" museum in York before leaving for home. By then, I was soooooo tired of driving! It was interesting to see pictures of the first settlers and to read about the history of the area. I saw a couple of old 'treddle' sewing machines that reminded me of the one my Grandma Mathews had in her attic. I used to go up and sew with it at times. You pushed the treddle back and forth with your feet and it made the needle go up and down. I paid for that time later when I got home at 1am after my flapping and dragging fiasco, but I still am glad I took a little time to do something interesting. I also learned at one rest area that it was Horace Greeley who inspired Josiah Bushnell Grinnell to "go west, young man". Grinnell went on to establish Grinnell, Iowa. It appears that Greeley, a prominent New York Journalist (who actually took the quote from someone else) , never did go west.
On the trip out, I think we picked up almost every bug between GR and Rexburg. At one time the bumper was solid bugs and you could barely see the paint.
Before leaving for this trip I prayed for safety ... for guardian angels if needed and even the 3 Nephites if times got really tough. What I got was Harold and Ren. Just before York, Nebraska where I stayed for the night, a big truck tread was turned sideways in the middle of the road. In the dark I didn't see it until it was too late so I straddled it rather than hitting it. I felt it hit the bottom of the car but all seemed well. The next day I drove all day and heard flapping at times but I thought it was the wind. I stopped at La Salle at about 7pm to get gas and discovered that the plastic under part had broken loose and had just started dragging. Still 5 hours from home, I didn't know what to do... so of course I called Tim. He asked if anyone was around and I said 'just 2 old guys and they are ignoring me'. He told me to get under the car and when I did, they finally came over. Lucky for me I had my 72 hour kit. Ren was the brains of the operation and barked orders... He put rope through the holes of the torn plastic and pulled them up so that they wouldn't drag. He put a hole through the last piece with a jack knife and tied it up also. When they were through, I tried to thank them and he said "just do something nice for someone else some time". They were pretty impressed that everything they asked for, I had in my 72 hour kit. I made it home with no problem.
At the beginning of the summer I just had a couple of goals... clear out stuff and have a garage sale, make t-shirt quilts for Tad and Tosh for college and try to have a family reunion. I thought the quilts would be a breeze, but I can think of other words to describe that project now. I now know just about everything that can go wrong with making a t-shirt quilt. In spite of the problems, they both turned out fairly well. This is Toshi's.
So, my apartment has some characters as many of you have heard. In order for you to stay with me, you will have to know the nicknames-Chinese girl, snowmen dishes, and UVU girl. The basics are that Chinese girl doesn't speak much english and UVU girl is a singer in a band and likes to lay in her bed with her boyfriend. But the real stories will come from Snowmen dishes girl who has these dishes marked with a lable maker that says "Miss Marie's snowmen dishes don't use" and she is 36 years old and works at the UVU kindergarden. The latest is that she had to move the knives out of the kitchen cause she was too scared to have them there and that's why she only has colored plastic Winnie the Poo silverware. Only me and my crazy life. But I have a great room all to myself and it was finally "dedicated" when I put up this lovely gift from Annette. Also, for those of you who have jobs or lives or don't have to sit in 4hour workshops and haven't been able to keep up on the most important upcoming event, the start of the Michigan football season, I will fill you in. This week we play Western at 3:30 eastern time on ESPN2. It will be interesting to see the three quarterbacks-Sheridan, Forcier, and Robinson. Maybe we should start the prayers now that one of them will be able to complete a pass!! Whatever happens, keep the faith for the Maize and Blue!
