At work, we (nursing and Mary from X-ray) decided to dress up in pajamas for Halloween. I think that's the best costume idea I've ever tried! Much more comfortable than an itchy wig or face paint...
The night before Halloween, four of us ran over to Walmart and found matching pants (the black ones that say, "Boo.") and coordinating Halloween shirts. We had fun posing for silly pictures and pretending do some kind of procedure on one of the nurses.
Our camera woman jumped in for the last shot. She's in administration and lots of fun to be around. She had a wooden spoon stuck in her hair for the day with her apron. I thought that was a cute idea.
The nurse I specifically work with is sitting just in front of me. She is one of the reasons I love my job so much.
"I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday,
to feel the Holy Spirit, to listen and to pray
For the temple is a house of God, a place of love and beauty.
I'll prepare myself while I am young. This is my sacred duty."
I went to the Spokane temple yesterday by myself while Greg was at work. I've never gone alone, but it was a peaceful experience. It was so beautiful, and I enjoyed the time I had to think and ponder things in my life and choices I'm making.
There was a nice couple there who offered to take my picture when they saw me with the camera. I enjoyed visiting with them while they showed me around the temple grounds. They are in charge of landscaping, so it was fun to talk about all the plants and see their work.
"I love to see the temple, I'll go inside someday
to covenant with my Father, to promise to obey.
For the temple is a Holy place where we are sealed together.
As a child of God I've learned this truth: A family is forever."
I got a hair cut. How do you like it? If you can't tell what's different, I got bangs. I think it looks weird because I'm not used to it yet. It looks like I'm wearing a wig. haha
Only one person at church noticed, so I guess it's not really as different as I thought. Someone else asked me if I got new glasses. haha
Oh, and of course the teenage girls that I teach noticed. I love that they always tell me if they like my dress or the way I did my hair. They are so sweet and cute.
I shared my testimony in sacrament meeting and I said how much I love my calling in Young Women's and that my worst fear is of getting released. I was half afraid to say anything about it--like I might jinx myself and get released the next week. I just feel like Young Women's is the place to be for me.
I wasn't sure what we were going to do about a garden this year. We moved into this house, but it's still a rental so I can't dig up the yard and make a big garden plot the way I'd like to. So I didn't start little seedlings this year because I was indecisive and thought I probably wouldn't have a garden...But when I started seeing other peoples' gardens on our evening walk I decided I had to do something.
Here's the solution for this year: Garden vegetables in long planter boxes. It's not exactly 60 pepper plants and 20 tomato plants like we did before, but we should still get something from these little guys. And it will be fun to watch their progress as they grow fruit this summer. I've got red, green, and orange bell peppers, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, and two kinds of squash.
Maybe next year we'll come up with something better.
This is my sister-in-law-to-be, Maggie. (And my silly husband.)
Last weekend Maggie graduated from Gonzaga University, so we had a nice time visiting with her and lots of family. Below is Maggie with her fiancee, David. He is Greg's younger brother. Greg and I love hanging out with the two of them. It's great to have in-laws that you would be friends with anyway.
Greg's parents came to stay with us for the weekend, and his uncle, Bob, from California. It was fun getting to see them too. We only get to visit a few times a year. And we see Bob even less. Greg and Bob got some special time together going out for a movie after the rest of us went to bed one of the nights.
I've really enjoyed hanging out with these guys since they moved to Spokane. It's about two hours from our house in Pullman, but we go to Spokane about once a month to go to the temple anyway, so we can usually meet up with them sometime that day. I will really miss them when they move away. I think they should come back and David could teach at WSU. That way Maggie and I could hang out all the time.
My nephew's class in Texas is doing a project to learn about different places by sending a small and flat version of themselves in the mail to visit friends and family. "Flat Hunter" came to visit us in Pullman, so we showed him around. We showed him the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse, as well as the dam on the way to Ellensburg. We had a good time.
We had so much fun we decided to make flat versions of ourselves to send back to his class!
Thanks for coming to visit Hunter! See you next time!
I was about to go to bed one night and I thought, "Eh, I'll browse Craigslist for a second while I wait for Greg." I saw this picture and thought it was pretty, so I emailed the lady. Not 24 hours later it was hanging on my wall. Cool.
I plan to get a few other pictures to go with it--it looks kind of lonely there on the wall by itself.
I think this may be an Easter miracle. The rainbow maker mom gave me a long time ago finally started working! (Or maybe it's just that we are heading out of winter and there's finally enough sunlight getting through to my window.)
Here's our Easter fun.
We went shopping together last night and picked out the chocolate we like: Reece's Peanut Butter Eggs and Cadbury's Eggs--the kind with the thick sugary "egg yolk" in the middle...Mmmmm...
Then we watched "The making of the Labyrinth" while putting together our Easter baskets. Jim Henson was a pretty talented guy. It's really too bad he died so young. I wonder what other movies he would have made if he were still alive.
After we finished that, we spent some time before bed putting together one of the puzzles Summer sent. That was fun. 100 pieces is just right for an evening project. And I like the picture a lot too.
I had kind of forgotten about Greg's basket. I made this a couple years ago. It still looks funny to me.
And of course, let's not forget the thing we are celebrating at Easter. I love this picture. My parents have a similar picture in their home that I liked to look at. The Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of those things that is important to remember year-round, so I keep this picture on the wall in our living room to help me remember.
This weekend there's a page about Easter on Mormon.org where you can comment and share your thoughts and feelings about Jesus Christ. I thought it was kind of cool to see that there are thousands of comments already. There's also some neat Bible Videos on this website, and a Facebook page with some Easter cards that you can comment on too.
Watching that video and reading the scriptures about Christ kind of makes our Easter basket and egg traditions seem silly and nonsensical. I've been trying to think of some good traditions to have (besides Easter baskets) at Easter so my kids will know why we celebrate Easter. What kind of Easter traditions do you have in your family?
It's a little late, but here's our St. Patrick's Day fun.
First, I had a little get-together at my house with some lady friends. I didn't have the camera to get pictures (Greg took it camping), but here's a picture of what he left for me. The flowers are primrose.
At the party we frosted sugar cookies and played games. I was glad I finally set a date and invited friends over. I've been wanting to for a long time and always talk myself out of it for whatever reason. It was really nice to have Maggie (my sister-in-law) over for the few days before the party too. It gets forgotten sometimes, but girl-time is very important. And of course, it was more fun having her here to help decorate and get ready for the party than being by myself. Greg and his brother went camping for the last half of that week, so we both would have been home alone if she hadn't come here.
The other fun thing we did this month was our ward's family dance at church. The Young Women were in charge of this activity, so they voted Greg to be the DJ again, and they decorated and advertised for the dance. Do you like my poster? I don't want to throw it away now--the bright colors are so pretty. =)
We had fun at the dance, although I wish more people came. I think next year we should invite all 3 wards in Pullman so there's more people, and then they won't be afraid to dance. The kids had fun though. The little kids were the best dancers there.
This last weekend I sang in three choir concerts, and the main event for the choir was the Faure Requiem. It lasts about 40-45 minutes, and by the end my feet were numb. Anyway, I was on youtube looking for a good video to share since it will be at least a month until I get the CD recording to send to my family. I just planned to share my favorite part of the song, but I got distracted by the director in this video. I'm not usually one to criticize other musicians, but I think she is have a seizure. haha. (If you don't want to watch both videos, just skip to the good one below.)
The comments below the video made me laugh too.
"It's great to see a female conductor. I can't think of many, apart from Jane Glover, so this is very refreshing."
"It's good to see female conductors but it's certainly not good to see anyone conducting like this! I don't understand any of her gestures! Do you know what an orchestra player does when someone is conducting like this? He ignores the conductor!!"
Anyway, I really do like this movement. You're supposed to hear the orchestra and imagine a heart beat while the soloist is pleading for God to "Libera me"--save his soul from hell on the day of reckoning when God comes to judge, and when heaven and earth are moved.
Singing in this choir has given me a new way of looking at music. I've really gotten into what we sing and it feels more like we're part of a musical that tells a story than just singing pretty songs in a choir concert. I'm glad to have these neat experiences.
We got one big snow fall a little before Thanksgiving, and then it's just been cold and dry. I was starting to feel like it's spring time, but tonight it finally decided to snow again.
It's kind of fun to have snow I guess, but not fun for driving. While we were on the other side of the state for Christmas we bought a car. It's a lot easier for us to get to our jobs with two cars instead of one person driving the other--especially when our start and end times are variable every day. Now that the snow has come we will have to drive each other to work again though. We haven't gotten snow tires for the new car yet, and you can't put on chains.
We're just grateful the snow came a half hour after we got home from our trip to Spokane today. It would not have been fun driving on the highway in the snow with regular tires on a new car...
(Isn't it funny--really I should be worried about sliding off the road because I don't want to get hurt, but somehow the money it would cost to fix the car seems like a bigger deal. The whole drive home to Pullman when we first bought the car was nerve racking. I kept imagining getting in a wreck just because it's a new car. Do new cars really get in accidents more often than old cars? I think it just feels that way.)
