Road Trip!

It took us three days to arrive here in Illinois. We left on Sunday, July 6 around 9 am. I cried my eyes out as we were driving through Spanish Fork canyon because it hit me how much I was going to miss all of my family and friends. It is always so sad to move on, even if moving on is a good thing. I managed to compose myself around Scofield and the rest of the trip went pretty well.

TRIP AS FOLLOWS:
Here we are in No Name, Colorado (yes, that really is it's name) enjoying the beautiful scenery:




We got stuck in traffic right after we took this picture. The two hour trip from No Name to Denver turned into almost five hours! This is the embroidery I was able to finish in ONE day because we were in the car for so freakin' long. (Not bitter, not bitter at all)

Here is Kaitlin lounging in the car as she watches one of the 20 Disney movies that she watched in 3 days. Notice the stinky foot kicking me in the back of the head. :)

Here are Robbie and I enjoying our ride together.

We stayed in Goodland, Kansas our first night, in a hotel that was gross. We were too tired to care much, so it was OK. The next day we drove 5 hrs to Kansas City. Last time we were there, we passed by a hotel that Rob has been obsessed with ever since. He loves water, as we all know, and this hotel has an indoor waterpark. He booked us a "Kid Kamp Suite", which had a part sectioned off for the kids that resembled a cabin with bunk beds. The girls loved it!

The water park was a blast as well. We checked in at 4 and were at the water park until 9. We ate dinner, went to bed and woke up early to go there again before we had to check out. Even water-hater me had fun.

Here we are on day three as we are about to cross the Mississippi.

The girls were obsessed with sunglasses this trip and wore them every chance that they got. If you see the angry clouds in the background you will see that sunglasses were not necessary in either pic, but they sure looked fabulous!!

These are the angry clouds that greeted us as we reached the Mississippi. This is the point where we wondered if this was a bad omen and if we should turn around and drive home as quickly as possible.

Finally, here is the blinding rain that we hit about 15 mile away from our destination. I was a little freaked out because the clouds were moving in so fast and because they were so angry looking. I was right to be worried because later we found out that the tornado sirens had sounded in our new hometown and also that a tornado had actually touched down between our town and a neighboring town. What a welcome!!

2 1/2 Weeks of Fun?! Part Deux

We had the movers come and box up our house on July 2. They showed up at 8:30 in the morning and begin pulling boxes out of our crawl space. I am a notorious pack-rat, so I spent the better part of 2 months going through our crawl space and throwing things out. I think that when all was said and done, we had probably gotten rid of half of what was in our crawlspace. I was so proud of myself and my purging abilities UNTIL I saw them keep pulling box after box after box out of our crawlspace. Watching in horror as half the downstairs was filled even BEFORE the rest of the movers came to pack the stuff that we actually NEEDED. By the end of the day, all we had was a little walkway from the front door to the back. Sad I know, but we really do need our 82 1/2 years of food storage, my punch bowl that I have used twice and the glass beer mugs that someone gave us for our wedding and we have never actually opened. They are COMPLETELY necessary.

The next day another set of movers came and put everything in the truck. They were giving each other high-fives and slaps on the back as they pulled up because they were loading such a small place and they were sure they would be done in a few hours. Imagine their shock when they actually saw the houseful of crap that they had to load. Ha Ha!

In the afternoon I felt bad for the guys because it was 100 degrees out, so I offered to go buy them some gatorade. They would like gatorade, they said, but beer would really hit the spot. One of them even offered for me to come party with them afterwards. SWEET! Tempting, I know, but I was shockingly able to resist.

This is a picture of our poor little empty townhome after they were done. We lived here for 5 years, and we had so many good memories here. We will really miss it and all of our good friends and neighbors. We had a wonderful time while we were in Springville, and we will miss it terribly.





After all of the moving, we were lucky enough to be able to go to the Stadium of Fire. It was a blast!!!

I have lived in Utah Valley almost my whole life, but I have never actually made it to Stadium of Fire until this year. Shockingly, I have never felt the need to commune with Brooks and Dunn or the Osmonds on July 4th. Blasphemy, I know.

It was such a treat to be there and we LOVED Miley and the Blue Man group. My favorite part was the fireworks.

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2 1/2 Weeks of Fun?! Part One

Our lives have been COMPLETELY turned upside down in the past 2 1/2 weeks. We have had a graduation, movers boxing up and emptying our little townhome, a Fourth of July celebration, and a trip halfway across the country to our new home all in 2 1/2 weeks. Not much, I know, but I think that I am just a little bit tired. So, where do I begin?



Rob's graduation went very well. as any proud wife would say. After 11 years of continuous education/suckiness, he is finally done!! His ceremony was a sit-down dinner held at the Alpine Arts center. It was beautiful, but you'll just have to take my word for it because as usual I forgot my camera. Who needs to have record of the culmination of 11 years of hard work anyway? Not me!!



Here is a pic of Rob and his graduating class of residents. (Sidenote: Notice the ghetto use of a camera taking a picture of a picture. We're all about class at this blog!)





Every year, each graduating class takes a "funny" picture that only they and people associated with the residency understands.

EXPLANATION OF FUNNY:

Rob and Mark are wearing sombreros and ponchos because most of their patients were Hispanic. They are slapping babies bums because they each delivered many, many, MANY babies. Har. Darren hunts, Jim golfs, Jen was the ad campaign girl for IHC. The two headstones represent Dan and Jonah who left the residency. It is actually very clever and funny to me, and to anyone who knows these guys, but everyone else is meant to be confused.

Finally......

WARNING: PROUD WIFE ALERT!!!! (If gushing bothers you, please turn away!!)

Every year all of the residents of each class get together and vote on the graduating resident who they thought was the best teacher and mentor to all of the residents. It is such an honor, and they voted on Rob to receive the award!!!

I am so proud of him and all of his hard work. All throughout his schooling and residency, people have told me how amazed they are at how much he knows, how high his test and board scores are, how compassionate he is, etc. He has put everything he has into becoming a good doctor and it makes me so happy that he was recognized for it.

I know that Rob was very happy to work with all of the people that he worked with at IHC. He met many amazing friends and mentors while he was there and I know that he'll miss each one of them. We're sad it is over, but, as usual, life moves on.

The Etiquette of Arson

Kristy and I have been working for weeks on planning an etiquette dinner for our Activity Day girls at church. We have discussed menus, centerpieces, stemware, silverware, etiquette tips, etc, etc, etc. We've made invitations, menus, and placecards. We had it all very carefully planned. Too bad that it all went up in smoke. (Cue ominous music please....and forgive the soon to be obvious pun.)



So, we are at the church, in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on our fabulous dinner that we have been preparing all day. Part of the menu was sauteed green beans with slivered almonds, so we were heating a little bit of olive oil on the stove to quickly saute them.



The oil on the stove started to smoke a little bit (not even a lot, a LITTLE bit) as it was getting hot and it set the dang smole alarm off at the church. Just like out of a movie, the lights dimmed, other lights started flashing and a loudspeaker started shouting "danger, please exit the building." Of course we were freaking out and were running frantically around trying to figure out how to shut if off. I ran to the fire alarm panel and pulled off the cover to see if I could shut if off that way and it started sounding off a different (and even louder) alarm. Luckily I was able to get the cover back on and turn the second alarm off. Mind you, the first alarm is still screeching and the voice is still shouting. This is the point when all of the people start showing up at the church. Talk about embarrassing. We were all talking and trying to decide what to do and I decided that we should call the fire dept. to see if they could tell us how to shut it off. I called them and asked them what we should do. They told me that they were moblilizing a unit to come. I screamed NO!! and told them not to come with a fire engine. Could you imagine that pulling up? I talked them into only sending the fire chief in his SUV to turn in off. They finally made it about 20 min. after the alarm first went off. They came in opened a panel and quickly turned it all off. At this time, a man from the stake came and started to berate us for daring to cook in the kitchen. "Don't you know that you can't cook in the kitchen?" "You should have known that you can't cook in the kitchen!" "Are you guys blind, can't you see that there was a partially obscured sign that says that you can't cook in the kitchen?" Forgive us for assuming that a kitchen was meant to be used. We obviously must be stupid to have come to that assumption. (I don't sound bitter at all, do I?) Anyway, even though we were obviously very flustered, the meal went off pretty well. I think that the girls and their moms enjoyed it and if you give me a week I may decide that I enjoyed it too.

She's Craft-tay!

As we prepare to move to our new home, I have been frantically going through our things, purging all of the junk and trying to finish all of the unfinished projects that I have had. Here are a few of my finally finished projects in all of their glory.

Here is a quilt that I started at the beginning of last year. I was so gung-ho when I began it that I was almost finished with it in about 5 days. In typical Becky fashion, I got sick of it and didn't touch it again for almost a year and a half. Finally, faced with a deadline to get it quilted at the store before we move, I was forced to finish it. It took me all of two hours to finish. WHAT is my PROBLEM!!




Here is the intricate stitching that some nice lady did for me for the low price of $100!! I almost wet myself when they told me how much it was, but I held my composure and took this low blow with grace and dignity.

Here is the tutu that I promised Kaitlin approx. a year ago. I bought Camie a similar one at the Hobble Creek Barn Boutique and we went the very next day to buy the tulle so we could make Kaitlin one right away!! As usual, other things got in the way and it was continually put on hold until the last second. When I started, it took me 6 hours to gather each layer of tulle and stitch it to the waistband. This I know, because I started A&E's verson of Pride and Prejudice at 8:30pm and did not finish the sewing until I finished the whole entire mini-series at 2:30am. The ribbons, sequins and flowers I glued on with E600 the next day. (Best glue ever, by the way.) Also, I don't know if you can see it, but the skirt is dotted with tons of hand -placed pink and clear Swarovski crystals. I think might have had a glue buzz by the time I was done with all of this.

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Finally, here is a cute card that I made with some stampin' up stuff I happened to acquire. I am in love with this stamp set, called Tart and Tangy.

Sad thing is that, after finishing all these projects, I still have tons of other projects left to do!!

Carnival Fun!!

Once again, last week, the carnival rolled into town!! My kids look forward to this week with anticipation throughout the whole year. They talk about it in the car, they compare carnival ride stories with their friends, they ask continually when the carnival will be back in town so that they can go on all the "super fun" rides. The girls were frantic with glee last week when they finally saw the flashing lights and heard the horrible music beckoning to them. On Saturday, after a week of begging, we finally were able to make it there!! They were able to ride on the merry-go-round, which is always a favorite...






and ride a few of the other kiddie rides as well.




They had a blast as usual, even though Kaitlin is at an age where she is too big to really have tons of fun with kiddie rides, but is too small to go on the bigger rides. These two girls are really able to have fun wherever they go!! Carnivals are not really my thing, but I think that it is wonderful that even though I am only able to see worn out and dirty old rides, my girls are able to see magic in it all. That is an amazing thing.

Dancing Queens

Once again my little girls had their Charisma Studios dance recital!! It is months of preparation up to this point, with each girl learning one tap and one ballet routine. Camie made it to dance class almost every week, but we kept forgetting to make it to Kaitlin's dance class because it was Friday afternoon at 4:30. Apperently I am not capable of remembering anything that is scheduled once I am in weekend mode. Anyway, we did manage to start making it to class a month and a half before the recital and luckily Kaitlin was able to pick up everything very quickly. Both girls did great at the recital. Camie danced to "Baby Face" and "Rubber Ducky" and Kaitlin danced to "A Spoon Full of Sugar" and "Beauty and the Beast". If I had any technical savvy I would try to post clips of their recital, but since I don't, you will just have to imagine. At the end, Kaitlin received a trophy for attending four years of dance classes. It is her very first actual trophy (t-ball is too cheap and only gives out medals) and she is incredibly proud of it.

Here is Camie in all of her fluffy, be-dazzled glory. She loves all of the over the top costumes and will also take any opportunity to be in full make-up. Love the hat, by the way. Do you think that they make them in adult sizes? :)

Here is Kaitlin in one of her "beautiful model" poses that she so desperately loves. Her costume is not nearly as be-dazzled and shiny as Camie's, much to her chagrin, but we made up for it by her elaborate hair-do (I should have taken I picture from the back so you could ooooh and aaaah over my fine work) and her full make-up complete with shimmery glitter and purple lipstick. A little girls dream for sure.

I am very proud of my sweet little girls and I am happy that they have the opportunity to learn new things. I'm also happy that they were able to do something every week that they thoroughly enjoyed. We are very blessed indeed.