Cousins Summer 2019

As I play catch up for 2019, I'm reminded of a lot of cousin time. Hunter East came to Utah in July. We had a great time getting together at Allison's apartment and at Jenny's house. Cousins who hadn't seen each other in a while.

Hunter made pizza: Melia, Allie, Jen, Karen, Hunter, Me, Allison, James and Keenan in background

Elle, Connor, Christian, Melia, Allie, Emily, Hunter, Allison 

Elle, Connor, Allie, Christian with Maddie, Emily and Brian, Mel, Hunter, Mac and Allison, James and Audrey

The same group + Kaleb Greening 

Jenny, Karen, and I also joined our Hunter cousins for breakfast. Jon and Marianne's kids all came with some spouses and some kids. It was great to see them all.

Todd and I are just one month apart

Stefanie, Kendra, Karen, Todd, Erica, Me, Jenny

Plus kids. So happy Kamiko could join me. 

Karen and I spent another year enjoying fireworks. It's so fun to get to see her often, usually around the 4th or 24th. She and Elle and Elle's friend were quite amazed by Phil Oswald's fireworks show. Elle's friend said it was just as good as Disneyland. The Crockett's, Starlyn, and I also helped Allie in her classroom a bit and we enjoyed the Tiny Art Show at the Springville Art Museum. A local BYU art education graduate is coming up with tiny art shows all around Utah. This was one of the first.

Allie's classroom at Diamond Fork Junior High

Karen, me, Elle, Starlyn, Kaleb at Tiny Art Show

Tiny cups of ice cream

October...Best Month of the Year

Conference + My Birthday = Perfect Weekend

I got up on my actual birthday and went on a walk with Annie. She and I usually take a Saturday morning walk together. She then treated me to breakfast at Black Bear Diner. I got a yummy vegetarian omelette. Then I watched the morning session of conference. 

Card from Kamiko and Bekki

After conference, I went to pick up Allison DeVuyst. She and James and the kids live only about 15 minutes from us. Jenny and I had to exchange some items, so we decided to meet up at Gardner Village. Neither Jen nor Allison had ever been to Gardner Village in October to see the witches. We walked around for a few minutes and enjoyed seeing the cute things. Then we headed our separate ways so we could get back to our houses in time for afternoon conference. Jenny gave me a little bakery cake and Allison gave me a yummy pumpkin spice mini bundt cake. I was gonna make pizza on Saturday night, but I wanted a nap more that I wanted pizza, so I made chicken noodle soup.

I ended up making the pizza on Sunday. I tried a new recipe for the dough and it was so delicious. 

I've been busy visiting my student teacher and my interns. I visit each every 2 weeks. I also read through their lesson plans each week. They're doing great. It's halfway through the semester and its fun to see them figure it all out.

October 15: Starlyn's daughter, Lacey, came home from her mission in Jacksonville, Florida

I've also been able to decorate for Halloween. It's our first Halloween in our new place and I got to figure out where everything goes. It took a while, but we got it all together. I even bought some Halloween artwork. It's so funny, but someone posted on our neighborhood facebook page that her daughter was trying to earn extra money to replace a decoration she broke. She posted pictures she had made and she was also good a painting nails and cleaning counter tops. I bought 2 of her drawings. I got frames at Walmart and they will be a permanent part of my decorations. 

Keenan gave me the kit to make this for my birthday. I love it. 

I made these pillows and I LOVE how they turned out.

Couldn't resist posting this picture of a car at a church trunk or treat in 2019

I'm gearing up for way more trick or treaters this year. There are a lot of kids in this neighborhood. It should be kinda fun. I bought a big big box of fruit snacks. Once 90 kids have come, the lights go out and we're done with trick or treaters. 

Surprise!!!!!! The Girls and I Went to Disneyland

Late in September, the girls decided to go to Disneyland for the weekend. They decided on a Thursday to leave on Friday. We can be spontaneous when it comes to Disney. I reached out to my friend Jenny to see if the girls could crash on her couches. She said it was no problem, since she hardly sees the girls anyway. They spend all their time at the park.

It got crazy when I was at work on Friday and I decided to join them. I texted them around 11:00 in the morning when I realized I had NO plans for the weekend. Would they want me to join them? We could take my car. I could drop them off and pick them up at the park. I could also see my friend, Jenny. I always love spending time with her and her family. The girls said to come along.

So, I hurried home on the train. I packed quickly. Mel and I got on the road around 4:30. We picked up Allie at mom and dad's. We were on the road around 5:00. We drove quickly. We got to Jenny's around 1:30 in the morning. Mel commented that it was a quick ride. The quickest ever. She got all of her homework done and got a nap in, too. I hadn't told Jenny that I was coming because I knew if she knew I was coming, she'd set up a bed for us and worry about things.

My niece Sarah in her beautiful apartment. Look at the plants outside their window.

I reached out to Derek before we left. He asked if I was in California. I said "no, but I will be tomorrow." He said he hadn't been to the park in a while with the kids and decided to meet me there. It was the perfect Saturday. I got up and took the girls to the park. Then I went back to Jenny's and helped her with kid stuff. I cleaned a window, watched the kids while she went grocery shopping and Andrew played basketball at the church. I then drove to Irvine to visit Sarah and Cam Christesen, who had just moved there from the Bay Area. It was fun to see their beautiful apartment. Derek and kids came at got me at 3:00 pm and we met up with the girls at California Adventure. We had a blast. Milo loves cars. He just loved everything about Cars Land. He pointed out every exhaust pipe. Rose was brave enough to go on Guardians of the Galaxy with the girls. We left around 8:00. We rode the Ferris Wheel for our first time. None of us Adcock girls had ever been on it.

Charlie's scared face on the Inside Out ride

Milo couldn't take his eyes off the cars and exhaust pipes on Mater's ride

These cousins always have a great time together.

I picked up the girls at 10:30 pm. We went to bed and got up around 8:00 and got on the road. The drive home was uneventful and also pretty quick. It was a great trip. YAY!

Home Economics Memory Lane

Last month, Allie represented the FCS majors at a scholarship awards banquet. Mel and Allie were both recipients. Allie got to bring a guest and Natalie said I could be her guest, so all 4 of us got to go. Dr. Ruth Brasher, who was my professor, sat at our table. I got a picture of all of us and I was so excited about it. Allie gave a great talk. It was a pretty great evening.

Me, Dr. Ruth Brasher, Allie, and Melia

The next week, I spoke at a Relief Society activity in American Fork. I spoke on the importance of family meal time and demonstrated how to make macaroni and cheese in the Instant Pot. A cute sister who was there introduced herself after the event and said that she worked at BYU, in the Home Economics department many years ago. She was the secretary to Virginia Cutler, who worked at BYU until 1973.

Some of the BEST people around at Karina's wedding. Annalise, Starlyn, Alyssa, Karina, Courtney, Dia, Allie, me, and Koli

Read the Book of Mormon = Miracles

Early in the summer, Mel's bishop challenged the members of their ward to read the Book of Mormon at a rapid pace. He promised them miracles. Mel invited me and Keenan to join her in the challenge. We dived in. We finished reading the Book of Mormon on October 1.

Mel and I were driving to BYU on October 2 and we talked about our miracles. I'll be honest, I was hoping Keenan would find a job and that would be our miracle. That still hasn't happened. BUT, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I received an award and it came with $1,000. My miracle was that I also got $1,000 in September, too. So, the award came with $2,000 total. Melia feels that her miracle was that she's enjoying school. She's in classes she likes and she thinks she may have found her major. Another amazing miracle was that my friend Ashley's husband found a job. Gregg has been unemployed for 20 months. They have 3 little kids, 2 of whom needed surgery, and Ashley got thyroid cancer in the middle of all of this. We've been in contact through this rough time for her and I was one of the first to get a text about Gregg's job offer. It was definitely one of my miracles.

A Crazy Connection

Turns out the Braus and the Adcocks first crossed paths a while back. March 1, 2011, to be exact.

Be patient. This is a bit of a long story. I have been asked to present at a faculty lunch on October 30. My topic is "Reaching and Teaching to the One, No Matter the Class Size." I have good ideas. One thing I'm passionate about is listening to the spirit. Whether it's deciding upon a spiritual thought for the week or grading papers or visiting with students, I try to listen to impressions that I get.

Once when grading papers, a student wrote about her mom's love of m&m's. She never liked m&m's but she likes them now because they remind her of her mom, who has since passed away. While grading her paper, I felt impressed to buy her a bag of caramel m&m's, my new favorite flavor. I wrote them on my grocery list and I bought them. I actually saw this student the day after I bought the candy. It didn't even take until our next lab to be able to give her the candy. She was appreciative.

This semester, I have a student who learned to run this year. She had a traumatic brain injury when she was in an ATV accident in high school. She ended up missing half of her senior year. She's quite the girl. She mentioned that a side effect of her injury is that she gets hot often. I knew I had extra fans from our Japanese exchange students, so I decided to bring one for her. I gave it to her in lab and she was so surprised that I remembered. She was very grateful. I try to pay attention to little things.

Since I saw a devotional many years ago, I have started lecture with a thought and prayer. The devotional was given by a male professor, who I thought was an accounting professor, who was also a convert. I have only seen a few devotionals over the years, but I really remember this one because it changed the way I teach. He reminded us that BYU is unique and that we are missing a great opportunity if we don't share spiritual thoughts. It had such an impact on me that I have looked for the devotional before. I haven't found it because I don't have many details. Male professor, talking about spiritual thoughts in class, convert. Hmmmm. So, spiritual thoughts in class will also be a part of my presentation.

I thought I'd reach out to Jim Brau, Kamiko's father-in-law, for some ideas on how to reach the individual student. I know he teaches big classes in the business school that are very different from my classes. He answered my email with his believe that enthusiasm and vulnerability are important. He said that he's had students tell him that his class changed them and he has never met the student. It's about overall presence. I asked more. Did vulnerable mean sharing personal stories? Spiritual thoughts? Does he pray about his work? He responded that he does share spiritual thoughts and that he shares stories in his thoughts. He then sent me a link to a youtube video, telling me that it explained how he did his spiritual thoughts. I opened the link and started to watch. It was a devotional at which he spoke. I started to get emotional because I started to think that it was my devotional. As I watched further and he talked about being a convert and gave a challenge to faculty to implement spiritual thoughts, I KNEW IT WAS MY DEVOTIONAL. THE DEVOTIONAL I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR. THE DEVOTIONAL THAT CHANGED HOW I TEACH. I couldn't believe it. Jim Brau, finance professor, is the one who gave that devotional. It was on March 1, 2011. Kamiko would have been 17 years old, a senior in high school. Bekki was a junior.

I immediately emailed Jim. I also called Michelle. I called Bekki and Kamiko to tell them. Michelle is convinced that we'll get on the other side and be amazed at how many coincidences there are in our lives.

I know this story will be a part of my presentation. The Lord knows us. If we are just open to inspiration, we can be His hands. Like I listened to a prompting to reach out to Jim and like he was kind enough to answer my questions and sent me that link.