Monday, April 20, 2015

Biggest Loser Inspiration

Ok, so besides "Call the Midwife," "Downton Abbey," "Survivor," "Dancing with the Stars," and "Amazing Race," I love to watch "Biggest Loser." It's a reality show about weight loss. A contestant this last season was Scott Mitchell, from Mapleton, Utah. He had played college football for the U and had played professional football, too. He was a standout contestant on Biggest Loser because he was so inspirational and encouraging to all the others. He spoke tonight about his experience at Springville High School. Starlyn and I went to hear him.

Besides the funny story about all the contestants getting on an elevator and causing it to malfunction because of their weight, he stuck to pretty inspirational stuff. I really liked what he called his 5 keys to success in ANYTHING.

1. Love yourself.
2. Work hard. Do what you're not good at and get good at it through hard work.
3. Surround yourself with a good team.
4. Hold yourself accountable.
5. You're NOT a victim. You are in control of your environment.




I am really glad we went. Not a lot of people were there. I felt badly that more people weren't there to hear his message. I'm glad we took time to go. It's always fun to hang with my friend Starlyn.

Family is Awesome

We had a great Easter with Sykes and grandma and grandpa coming for dinner. I went the easy route and did yummy sweet ham sandwiches with sweet potato fries, asparagus, etc. We had a fun time. We did an Easter egg hunt for all the "kids" in the backyard. Daniel Sykes, the Sykes cousin has been living with them and he came. It was fun to get together. It always is.






Karen is in town for a couple of days. She flew in this morning. I took mom to pick her up, then we went up to Jen's house. Karen had an eye check up with Scott. I stayed at Jen's and took a nice nap. Then we had lunch and chilled. Karen had found the most awesome shirt at the Nike outlet in Castle Rock. I asked her to pick one up for me. She also got one for Jen. So, of course, we took a pic of us wearing them. Proud Swedes. The 3 crowns is a symbol of Stockholm and Sweden. Stockholm's City Hall, a very iconic building in town, has 3 crowns on top of it.

Excuse Jen's scary face. She had gone to the dermatologist for a skin cancer treatment. Aren't we cute, though. 

Work Update


Work is great, as usual!

My cute student's mom made me this shirt. I had seen her Texas one early in the semester and gushed about it. Evidently I gushed enough to earn one of my own. The heart is in just the right place.


We had a baby shower for Jenny, our food buyer. It was a great time. Back row: Ann Hardman, Starlyn Hjorth, Erin Mack, Jenny Fosdick, Becky Hinchcliff. Front row: me, Annie Christensen, Leah and Ali Clarkson.

My Mini-Vacation

Last week I took a mini vacation to mom and dad's house in Mapleton. I stayed both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. One night is not enough for a vacation because I would probably feel the need to fix dinner before my vacation and cut it short to help someone who's in a jam. So, I stayed two nights.

Mapleton is beautiful

I led my Weight Watchers meeting on Tuesday, then headed down to mom and dad's. We visited for a bit, then began to watch "Killing Jesus," a movie that mom had recorded. It's based on the same-titled book by Bill O'Reilly and all about the events that lead up to Jesus' death. I liked it. I think mom did, too. Dad didn't and he was very vocal that he didn't. It did make Jesus seem surprised at his ministry and some of the miracles. I doubt that was the case. Anyway, we watched some of it, then I went to bed. Downstairs. In a dark room. Where nothing could disturb me.

I woke up Wednesday when I wanted to. I went out on a walk for about an hour. It was barely snowing when I left. It really got going and I got coated in white by the end of the walk, but I had a good coat and hat and gloves, so I was ok. Mom and dad had an appointment at the doctor's office. When they got back, I was cleaned up and mom and I went shopping. I had to run to the mall and the fabric store. We got both errands done and ate lunch at Zupa's. I got salad and mom had a sandwich. Mom even bought me a soda. We got back to the house and read and napped. Then we finished watching "Killing Jesus" and watched "Call the Midwife." We also watched "Survivor" and "Dancing with the Stars." Mom hadn't seen either survivor or dancing and I don't think she was too impressed. She probably wonders why I waste my time on those, but I love them. Dad got home from the temple and we watched news shows from Fox News. And, I slept in my quiet, dark room again.




Thursday morning I went on a walk again. This one was much better. After my walk, I got cleaned up and mom and I went to the temple. Then we came back to their house and waited for dad to get back so we could play 5 Crowns. It wouldn't be a real vacation without cards. I was doing horribly at first. Really racked up points. But, in the end, I won. It was fun.
Found Lady Liberty on my walk

5 Crown selfie

My hand on kings

Proof. You're welcome, Derek!

So, it was back to reality. Went home and fixed dinner. The vacation was nice while it lasted.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Drew

It looks like I'm actually shopping with my kid. I've never had this happen before since my own kids don't look like they could be my kids. We laughed about that.
This is my friend Drew. God meant for us to meet for multiple reasons, and the reasons keep manifesting themselves. Here's how God did it:

Last year, literally about a year ago, my TA Annie and I were at work and I was about to leave for the day. It was a Thursday and I get done around noon, so I'm always ready to head out as soon as possible. Annie got word that her sister needed her help watching her son, Noah. Annie asked if I could remain in the lab for a minute while she got Noah at our loading dock. Annie was expecting a visit from a former Especially For Youth participant any minute and someone needed to let her into our locked lab. So, because I love Annie, I stayed.

There was a knock and I let in a cute little blonde with an equally cute momma and dad. I immediately started to ask questions to get to know them, because that's what Hunters do. We make connections. Would you believe they're from Bentonville, Arkansas?! I didn't quite know the Arkansas geography yet, but I knew Allie was going to Arkansas for school. When they said northwest Arkansas, I couldn't believe it. They live 30 minutes from where Allie was going. Drew was accepted to BYU and going to be 30 minutes from where I live. We talked and talked. They are so nice.

So, the momma pact was made. Michelle Blankenship (equally cute momma) would watch out for Allie and I would watch out for Drew. What a relief! Allie would have a mom when and if she ever needed one. So would Drew. I loved her right away.

When I took Allie to Arkansas, one important stop was to the Blankenship home so Allie could meet both Drew and her new mom. Of course, we all four hit it off great as we visited for a bit. I knew Allie would be in good hands.

In September, school started. Allie was settled in Arkansas and Drew was here. Michelle and I did our momma duties. I introduced Drew to JDawgs right away. Michelle took Allie out to lunch one day. Drew actually took my class, so I got to see her every week. That was awesome. Neither girl ended up needing much help. They're both awesome that way. But, we moms have been able to drive them to the airport and just text and check-in. It's been great.

Drew recently got her mission call. She held onto it for 2 weeks until she recently flew home to open it. On Thursday, I picked Drew up at her dorm to bring her to American Fork. I was kind enough to feed her leftover pasta. See, I treat her like my own. We then went fabric shopping. I want to make her a skirt for her mission. While out shopping, we talked about where she might go. A lot of Tonga references had come up recently, so she was wondering if she would go there. We wondered if it might be Chile, where both Kamiko and Drew's boyfriend are serving. She mentioned that her boyfriend is getting tired of the same chicken and rice to eat. I told her about the rice, fried egg and fried banana that I had to eat so often. I never grew to like fried bananas. We took the above picture at the fabric store. We narrowed it down to a really cute red print. We met Keenan and Mel for yogurt and hung out, then I drove Drew to the airport. We had a fun time. Poor girl had a long night's flight ahead of her. Oh well, she's young.

The cute red we settled on

The skirt will look something like the red one in the middle of the picture.
My Drew opened her mission call on Friday evening. I knew she was opening it. In fact, I was with Annie (the one who introduced us) and Ali, both former TA's, celebrating Donut Friday and Annie's birthday, when I saw on facebook that Drew had opened it. Drum roll, please....OMG...Drew is going to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I've been waiting 25 years for someone to get called to Bolivia. (Since they split the missions and created the Santa Cruz mission, I've always said that would be THE ONE to go to. I loved that part of the country). I've met students who have returned from there, but I've never known anyone to open their call to my Bolivia. Of course, it is Drew who won the lottery. I'm so excited for her. Annie and I called her immediately and I assured Drew that she won't gain weight, as she feared. The food just isn't that good. I reminded her of the rice and fried egg and banana and that now she gets to eat it. We laughed. When done with the girls at the donut place, I immediately called Michelle and told her that Drew would be just fine. I told her to not worry one bit. I told her how lovely Santa Cruz is and how kind and open and loving the people are. She got a bit weepy and said that the Lord is great to put people into our lives when we will need them.

Amen!