Allie is 17! Whoa, I remember 17. I started college at 17. 17 was aunt Rachel's favorite year.

Allie's birthday was fun. She just wanted money and to go shopping. We complied. We also surprised her with not one, but two, pair of her favorite cheap sandals from Hawaii. Sandy Hewlett picked them up for me. Allie was thrilled. She also got a dress that she had picked out at JC Penney.

We gave her some cash. We went to dinner at Sammy's in Provo. It's a burger, shake place with awesome stuff. Very unique menu items. Kamiko was to meet us, but was busy with a test, so we took his food to go and dropped it at his apartment.

With Allie's cash, we girls headed to Salt Lake on the Saturday before Allie's birthday. We went to Gateway and City Creek Malls. While out, we stopped at Cheesecake Factory for a couple of treats. We had a good time and Allie didn't even spend all of her money. She is saving some to buy a nice camera. She also had some leftover that she spent later at University Mall. The girls love to shop. They are bargain hunters, though. They have too many clothes, but got good deals on them.

I can't believe she's 17. That's when things are really fun. She's got the hang of driving and is about to be a Senior, the king of the school. She's a great girl. I love spending time with her. She's hard-working, extremely creative and Melia's best friend. She is strong in the gospel and has her own way of expressing herself and loving others. I couldn't ask for more.

the main present...clever presentation, huh?

Allie and Mel at Sammy's

Say "Cheesecake"!

birthday cake...ahhhh...red velvet!

Allie and Mel enjoying the cake

Allie in her birthday dress and Mel (after church)

Sundays

Church is at 9:00 am now. I don't particularly like getting up early, but it's working out ok. Our typical Sunday seems to go as follows:

I don't know when Keenan gets up and goes to meetings

7:40 my alarm goes off and I hit snooze
7:45 snooze again (my primary lesson is already done, so no need to hurry)
7:50 get up and get dressed
8:15 find out Allie is getting ready, but Melia's alarm didn't go off (that's a big mystery)
8:50 leave for church

9:00 to noon church

noon come home and eat lunch

1:00 naps
5:00 or so dinner

sometime later...work with Allie on ACT and with Melia on Personal Progress

Hang out and stay up late because we all took naps

P.S. We do have family time and go over our weekly calendar, even though the girls think it's a big fat waste of time.

Sundays are a nice, relaxing day when we spend time together and I try to wrangle the girls into playing a game with me.

Couldn't resist getting some pics of a typical Sunday evening.
Mel curled up, texting someone (probably Kobi Watkins)

Reading "A Girl Named Zippy" while Allie worked on Latin

Three Colors of Thread in One Day

Sewing and totally enjoying it!

Black thread: Allie got asked to prom a couple of weeks ago. It was late at night and we stayed up even later, looking at patterns online, thinking of what to create. She tried on a purple and black short dress we had purchased on mega clearance sometime ago and suggested we remove the skirt and replace with a long skirt. So, we were off to the bed, then to the fabric store during store hours. We got black satin for the skirt and black chiffon for over the skirt and for a bodice, since the original dress is strapless. Yesterday we dived in and trial after trial, pinning and picking out, we got the skirt attached. It looks awesome. I immediately texted my friends a picture with the caption "I'm freaking awesome." We now need to add to the bodice with chiffon to make a jewel-neckline, sleeveless top. Then we hem when she finds shoes. No one will have a dress like it. It was a fun afternoon with my Allie.

After a few hours of work, we see real progress!

Beginning stages

Gold thread: Went last week to the "expired food store" with some co-workers. It's a trippy place that sells items reclaimed from trucks and trains. They have everything from tools and furnace filters to yogurt and soda. They have fabric there and I bought fabric to make 3 skirts. I finished a gold knit long skirt yesterday. I had tried it out on Sunday and figured out what I was doing quite quickly and it needed some tweaking, which I completed on Monday. I like it. Maria asked if it makes me look short, to which I responded: "I'm short anyway, so I don't care." While I was sewing, Kim Rose Cassetti called and we reminisced about high school, when I sewed most of my clothes and would give her homemade items. She would always look at it and comment that there was no tag. No tag on my skirts still...and I'm 46 years old. :)

Do I look short?

White thread: I also bought chambray at the expired food store to make a skirt. I did that yesterday while the girls were at school, before we worked on Allie's dress. It's cute. I told Mel you'd think I bought it at the store. She said except that it's too long. I said that I bought it at a store with clothes for garments. It will be a fun addition for spring...WHICH STARTS TOMORROW! With the white thread I also sewed tabs on mine and Keenan's new towels in our bathroom. I prefer hooks in bathrooms and it's much easier to make sure towels stay hung up if they have hooks on them.

To bed around 10:30 after fixing a skirt, making a skirt and designing and attaching a skirt to a bodice for prom. A great day.

Some Pictures from Work in 2012

Boy, just when I lose TA's and think they are the BEST EVER, we get new TA's that rise to the challenge. I love all of them for their personalities, contributions and friendships. Annie Christensen is from American Fork and is a fellow-Caveman. She is studying PE Education, so in that sense, she's my opposite. We sure have a great time in lab, though and have branched out to other adventures. Ali Chumbley took my class a while back. She wants to go to culinary school and own a bakery someday. She's from Southern California, so is a girl after my own heart. Mat Williams is our ginger (red-head). He just got married and is a proud Texan. GO TEXAS! Forrest Chambers is a great kid. Like Forrest Gump, he's from Alabama. I am going to visit him someday there. The pictures are lovely. Jessica Adams Lewis is from Kristen's ward in Livermore. She was good friends with all the East kids. She took my class and I was able to recommend her for hire. She is a nursing student, now married and pregnant. So cute. Sarah Matheson is one of our FACS majors. She had the class from me and recently TA'd for me. I was amazed at her ability to get the class' attention in spite of her quiet demeanor. The awesome Jenny Fosdick does our food buying and the equally amazing Starlyn Hjorth is over the lab facilities and our TA's.

Our Christmas Party! Back row: Jenny, Mat, Starlyn, Annie, Forrest and Ali
Front row: Jessica, me and Sarah

I was supposed to bring a gift that had to do with our fats and oils lab. Of course, I brought XXXL sweatpants that my girls found at Walmart. A bit over budget, but well worth the laughs!

A student of ours teaches 6:00 a.m. Cross Fit classes. Ali , Annie and I decided to give it a try. I warned them that my appearance would scare them. I did not disappoint. They laughed at me.

Still Cold...Preparing to Go Back to Work

It's still barely above 0 degrees. It's cold. I taught a lecture last week, but no labs. I had  a good time. For some reason, it was one of my best first-of-semester lectures. I go back to my regular Wed, Thurs, Fri schedule this week, so this is my "last hurrah." I spent last Friday watching episodes of a popular PBS show called "Downton Abbey." It's set in pre-WWI England. Fascinating to look at the social status rules and mores of that day.

Today I'm working on menu-planning, catching up on this blog and getting my powerpoint presentations ready for the semester. I'm removing a couple of video clips that I really don't like and replacing them with other methods of teaching the concepts, so I need to get that figured out. Should be a good change.

After the new year and before the Bryners headed back to Michigan, we all got together to celebrate Jude's first birthday. We went to Salt Lake to Ben's grandparents' home. It was a lot of fun.

The birthday boy!

Eve, Ben, Jude, Kelly and Portia Bryner

Emily and Allie goofing around at Jude's party

Sisters! Jen, Kelly and Dana (supermom)

Got a new class in Primary yesterday and that went well. Good, cute kiddos. I also got a co-teacher, which will be great. I haven't had a co-teacher in about a year. Yippee! I might get to take a breather and go to RS occasionally.

Finished a Couple of Good Books

Since we have no cable TV and now turn off cell phones and internet at 9:30 pm, I'm getting a lot of reading done. I just finished a couple of good books. The first was for my Provo-based book club. It was "Crossing the Wire." The book was written to a juvenile audience, about a young 15-year old Mexican boy who struggles to get across the border to the United States so he can work and support his family. At first it was concerned that it would make me sympathetic toward illegal immigration. It didn't. It sure made me appreciate what we have here in the U.S. It also made me aware of the never-ending and corrupt route it is to come to the U.S. from Mexico - if you do it illegally. Good book.

The next book was "Saint Behind Enemy Lines," an autobiography written by a friend of Jenny's from her Baltimore days. I had read it before when Jen gave it to me, but decided to re-read it since the author, Olga Campora, is mentioned in this month's visiting teaching message. It's about a woman who grew up and eventually joined the church in communist Czechoslovakia. Wow, talk about lack of freedom! You couldn't gather in meetings, talk about God, or even profess to believe in God without fear of problems or incarceration. Her description of life there was quite bleak. Lack of choice and freedom really stinks. It sucks the life out of a person. She found the gospel through a yoga instructor while in college. She was baptized in a river at night so no one would know. She later started teaching yoga and holding yoga camps with her teacher and they taught gospel truths to people so they would be ready when the gospel came to their country. A number of their yoga students joined the church. The Velvet Revolution in the late 80's opened doors for them and changed lives. A really good read - again. Glad I picked it up again. Now mom wants to borrow it.

Things I'm grateful to have in America:

1. Ability to give spiritual thought in my classes at BYU
2. Church meetings every week
3. Going to the temple 1 mile away when I want to
4. No fear of government intervention in church or religious beliefs - yet
5. Food
6. Work
7. Savings in the bank
8. Ability to pay our bills
9. Elections
10. Ability to send my kids to college and on missions
11. Our flag
12. Malls
13. Bright, cheery schools
14. Our own home and yard
15. Garbage pick-up every week
16. Cars
17. Garden in back yard
18. Food storage
19. Scriptures and Ensign and New Era and Preach My Gospel
20. Freedom and everything that comes with it!

Baby, It's COLD Outside!

We have started the new year with very cold weather. It was -2 this morning and many mornings. It only got to 9 degrees yesterday. Even Honu doesn't want to go outside. He's using the litter box. He does get a bit restless and decides to go outside some, but comes right back in. He doesn't like the cold weather, either.

Looking in the open sliding door. He can't decide if he's coming in or staying out. He came in!

New Year's was pretty fun. Mel's friends wanted to get together, but the usual girl couldn't host, so Melia had friends over here. She was hesitant because Keenan and I check in when kids are here and we also have the nerve to talk to her friends. Evidently we don't just talk, but "have conversations" with them. I guess that's not cool. Well, she had about 15 kids here with chips, pigs in a blanket, candy, soda and popcorn. They were really good. They watched a movie downstairs and just had a good time. Allie supervised so Keenan and I didn't have to go down. It was great. I got 4 aprons and a pair of mittens cut out, which I then sewed on New Year's Day and the day after.

On New Year's Day, we went to see the movie "Les Miserables." It's been all the talk this fall and everyone is posting about it on facebook. I couldn't have the girls going back to school the only ones who hadn't seen it. Just kidding. As it is, they are the only ones going back without iPhones. Poor girls. The movie was great. I had seen the play in California right after my mission. Evidently, I took dad's ticket. He had just learned he had lost a big lawsuit and wasn't up to going to the theater, so I went with mom. That little detail is news to me. I just found that out this week. I really liked the movie version because you could see the facial expressions on the actors. Good flick. I still vote for Daniel Day Lewis to win oscar for best actor in "Lincoln." He was AMAZING with all capital letters!