tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24659669223230200092024-03-05T21:17:00.417-06:00Kingsley CornerAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.comBlogger609125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-39540381958846848432016-05-07T22:05:00.001-05:002016-05-07T22:05:16.068-05:00Nathan and Daniel's Spring UVMCO concertNathan and Daniel had the memorable experience of performing with guest artist Jenny Oaks Baker in the utah Valley Millennial Choir and Orchestra this week. I absolutely love this group!<br />
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The conductors are mindbogglingly talented and write most of the music that UVMCO performs. Nathan was in the coir last fall, and their Christmas performance was so inspiring and felt literally heavenly. I can close my eyes and it feels like I can almost see the heavens opened and angels singing the strains of praise.<br />
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After seeing the top-notch quality of the Christmas concert, I was very interested in letting Daniel join their children's choir. So for the past several months, Nathan and Daniel have been driving to Provo for weekly rehearsals that last late into the night. Nathan gets off work early and rushes home to pack a portable dinner for the two of them, then they whisk away. After the children's choir is finished singing, Daniel waits in the lobby during Nathan's rehearsal, so he brings along his homework, a sketchbook, and a novel to pass the hours. It's been such a fun weekly outing for them.<br />
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I've been looking forward to their Spring concert for months! Daniel has grown so much in his singing ability, and he was so eager to perform in the world-class venue Abravenal Hall. It's remarkable to me that a children's choir can have such a notable exposure to professional performances. This concert was also performed with Jenny Oaks Baker, a famous violinist. What a unique opportunity!<br />
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The music was selected to testify of Christ, sing praises to the Lord, and invite the Spirit so the audience would feel their testimonies strengthened, and find peace and healing through the message of Christ's loving Atonement. It was remarkable how well the music communicated this message for over two hours. The Spirit was uncommonly strong in the concert hall, and the performers put their hearts into the music. I cold see many musicians playing their instruments with such passion that tears streamed down their faces as the power of the music touched their soul. It was so memorable. I was so touched, and my own tears flowed freely throughout most of the concert.<br />
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The UVMCO group has several choirs of various ages, and in order to let them all perform together on the combined numbers, half of the choir would need to fill the balconies. I was surrounded on three sides with powerful songs of rejoicing, and it made my heart thrill. I wished so strongly that I could sneak a picture of it- the sheer numbers of participants is noteworthy. And they were so polished in their performance. It was such fun watching the conductors, since they led the music with such passion and unbridled joy, turning constantly to conduct the orchestra on stage, then the singers in the balconies on the left, then the singers on the right. It was like a mesmerizing dance in itself.<br />
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Words just can't express how powerful this evening was. I've seen performances by professional symphonies, operas, ballets, and more.....but the UVMCO performances bring a bigger thrill to my heart while still being comparable on the level of professionalism. It's even more remarkable when one considers that all the participants are volunteers. It's such a dedicated group! (A group picture will be posted here as soon as the official portrait is released for purchase.)<br />
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There were multiple times in the evening when a musical number would conclude to the roaring applause, whistles, and standing ovation of the audience shouting, "Bravo!" Truly, I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else.<br />
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After the performance, we made our slow exit through the crush of nearly 3,000 bodies. To celebrate Daniel's achievement in the choir, we took him out to eat on the way home. It's a rare treat to eat out, and he was so excited! We spent a lovely hour at Chili's enjoying delicious food. Our favorite way to eat out is to have everyone order something different, then we enjoy it family-style so everyone gets to taste a variety of foods. We finally made it home after midnight, and were happy to fall in bed savoring the memories of the evening. I am filled with such gratitude that we have access to such a high quality choir that has power to convey such powerful messages to build testimony. <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-2351615865431577872016-02-16T11:59:00.000-06:002016-02-16T11:59:06.937-06:00Family Reunion, July 4th<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Too far behind, and too much to document. Yikees. I'm not posting much text with this one, since it's the typing that makes me fall so far behind. </div>
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Here are glimpses of our wonderful July 4th and family reunion with MaryAnn and Bliss Roberts before they left on their mission to South Africa. My heart was full of joy nonstop. Heavens, how much I love these people!! What a perfect day this was! I can't say enough how happy I am that we live close enough to join in these memorable days. </div>
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This pic needs a bit of explanation. I caught this candid moment because Adam and Nathan were entertaining themselves by watching the ceiling fan pull chain oscillate and analyzing the math equation that would explain physics to the movement. Smart men are so incredibly attractive! I'm so happy to be married to a nerd!</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-48065469025804946342016-02-16T11:50:00.005-06:002016-02-16T11:50:49.553-06:00Thanksgiving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
This past November we hosted Thanksgiving at our place and actually had relatives close enough to join the feast! It was such a treat to have my Mom, brother Robert, brother Randy and his kids all come down from Idaho to stay for a few days. I'm afraid I was enjoying myself so much I didn't really take pictures of their visit. We enjoyed playing games together and eating yummy food for days. They also helped me with some Days For Girls service projects (I haven't really mentioned it on the blog, but I volunteer regularly with Days For Girls now and am a board member for our chapter. It's such a treat to volunteer with wonderful women!). The kids helped trim, fray-check, fold, and package liners destined for Haiti. It was really fun and my niece Gracie raved how much she enjoyed it. I really love doing service projects with family or friends. It's so fun to laugh together and chat while engaged in a good cause, and I absolutely love the idea of doing service on Thanksgiving Day. It's such a good way to express our gratitude!</div>
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(Unfortunately my pics of the project didn't usually tun out- they were mostly too blurry to use. I'm so bummed I didn't get a good pic of the cousins together!)</div>
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Matthew has really enjoyed cooking this year, and is an eager student in the kitchen. He was Nathan's sous-chef this year. He took such pride in helping with the pies in particular. I'm so happy he enjoys cooking- he is often baking yummy breakfasts for the family on Saturday mornings. I keep telling him that his college roommates will love his cooking, and it's an important skill to have in place before he leaves to serve a mission. </div>
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Nathan took a day off from work Wednesday so he could spend a full day cooking for the feast. He always looks forward to Thanksgiving with such delight. I'm SO grateful he enjoys cooking, since it's such a big part of most holidays and I really don't enjoy it. It's such a blessing to our family! </div>
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I forget our official headcount this year, but I think we had between 35-40 people here for the Thanksgiving feast. We had tables set up all over the house! The food was delicious, and it was such a pleasure to spend the day with so many relatives. We were blessed to share the feast with my Mom, Robert, Randall and his kids, Blena (Ben and Elena), Dambi (Adam and Aubbi), the Zimmerman family, and a bunch of Elena's relatives. </div>
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We were so busy I didn't get any pictures of the feast or guests....we'll have to settle for this picture of the dessert table:</div>
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After the Thanksgiving feast, lots of girl cousins sat by the fire and worked on cutting ribbon and threading bags for the DFG project. They threaded 75 bags! What hard workers they were! </div>
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We ended up having the Zimmerman cousins spend the weekend with us for three days. The children had SUCH fun playing together every day and staying up late giggling every night. They were a delight to have over, and it didn't seem like we had an extra 10 children around. They are such good kids and were always offering to be helpful around the house. We loved having them over!<br />
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Joseph decided it was a fun game to wash the dishes, so he was a great help in the kitchen (for about 10 minutes until he decided something else was more fun- but I'll take any help!) </div>
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It was such a blessed weekend filled with delicious food, games, late night movies, playing at the park, and lots of laughter. The last day of the weekend, a yucky stomach bug made the rounds through the children. Our upstairs was like an infirmary. I had a sick child quarantined in bed in 4 different rooms as we tried to contain the spread of illness. I admit, there was an element of fun to 'making the rounds' through the rooms checking on everyone and delivering more drinks and crackers. If I pretended to be a nurse, it was a lot more fun and less drudgery. Luckily the bug passed relatively quickly and children were back to normal in about 24 hours.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-28754485597997920022015-12-09T11:55:00.001-06:002015-12-09T11:55:25.994-06:00Port Aransas trip<br />
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We were blessed with one unscheduled weekend in May to do one item off our Texas bucket list. (This entry is out of order- this happened before our Globals trip, right before Nathan moved to Utah to begin his new job. I was going to be packing and prepping for the move alone for a few weeks, and he was flying back the day before our move. This was our last weekend together for some time.) Also- I didn't want to risk ruining my nice camera with sand or water, so we took a very old battered camera along- which explains the poor picture quality. </div>
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So we took our family to the beach. I knew it would be a lot harder to visit the ocean once we lived in Utah, so this was our priority on our bucket list. We loved the Rock Port beach very much, but decided to try someplace new. So off we went to the beach town of Port Aransas, located on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. Oh what a blessed trip it was!</div>
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We drove down Friday after school, and stayed in a hotel overnight. Friday evening the children were so excited to head straight to the beach. For fun, we collected mussels and other shell fish. We found a fun way to vibrate our hands in the sand right when a wave washed over the area, and the hidden shellfish would just pop up onto the surface of the sand. Then it was a race to see how many we could scoop up before they dug into the sand again. It was akin to finding treasure. </div>
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We collected buckets of them and had such fun playing with them before setting them free again. We added some sand and water to the bucket, and would watch the shellfish expose their muscles to dig down in the sand. </div>
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We also walked along the beach collecting shells for our Family Museum. Last year we started collecting rocks or soil from different places we visit. We label them and put them in a little apothecary jar. It's a fun collection of different colors and reminds us of our travels. Everyone had fun scampering across the sand finding shells to take home. </div>
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After playing in the ocean until dark, we swam in the lit outdoor pool of our hotel. The air was brisk and cold to me, so I retreated to the hot tub while the rest of the family frolicked in the pool. They played for an hour, and we discovered a monstrous bull frog in the grass. It was such fun to play with him for a bit before carefully placing him in a secluded spot of the bushes. </div>
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After spending a childhood in Idaho, palm trees always seem so exotic and magical to me. Even though they weren't uncommon in central Texas, I still felt a thrill any time I saw one. Port Aransas was full of palm trees. I really enjoyed watching the palm trees sway in the wind.</div>
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After a lovely breakfast, we headed into town to explore the area a bit. This town had so many fun shops! One of our favorite stops was an eclectic candy shop. It was full of antiques and oddities (including a live pet rattlesnake) so it was intriguing to peruse. Each child was allowed to choose a type of candy for the family to share. It was such fun to try so many new things. The shops often had places to stop and take pictures. </div>
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Of course there were many shops selling beach toys, shells, swimsuits, and other ocean-themed souvenirs. Our favorite shop had a giant shark for a front door. We had such fun exploring the shops and picked up some shark tooth necklaces for the boys, and a shell necklace for Sarah. </div>
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I love the color and personality of island towns! Most of the houses were painted bright colors. It's so cheerful to be surrounded by color throughout the entire town. </div>
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That afternoon we found a new spot on the beach to play, near the entrance to the harbor. Check out this fun optical illusion. Doesn't it look like a beached ship? </div>
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Here the waves were bigger, so we waded into the ocean and rode the waves for hours. It was exhilarating! </div>
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We were in water 5 feet deep when we rode the waves. It was thrilling and simultaneously scary to feel the waves tug at me when they receded to the ocean. I was so afraid of rip tides or being pulled out to sea...but it was such fun to feel the wave lift me off my feet. </div>
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Sarah and Nathan took Joseph into the ocean, each of them clutching one of his hands. Then they would lift him and swing him back and forth over the water, letting him kick the waves as they rolled by. He loved it! He also dearly loved building sand castles on the beach and scavenging shells to decorate it with. </div>
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We also caught more mussels to play with. It's so fascinating! </div>
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Poor Matthew was stung across his shoulder and back by a blue jelly fish. It was so sad! It hurt very badly, so we walked down to a ranger station to get treatment. They had a spray bottle of vinegar to apply, then meat tenderizer to sprinkle on the skin. Matthew was in so much pain, and was afraid the vinegar would make it sting worse. He asked me to spray the vinegar onto his hand so he could apply just a dab of it to his skin. Unfortunately the spray bottle was very powerful, so our first jet of vinegar ricocheted off his hand and straight into his eyes! It's a funny story we laugh at now, but at the time he was devastated.<br />
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It was an hour or so before he ventured into the water again. When he did return, he was soon out in the waves again with the family having fun.<br />
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As evening drew near we headed home. The way off the island was a ferry ride. We actually rode it three times that day. We drove onto the boat and it took us across the lagoon entrance. The kids loved the new adventure.<br />
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I am so grateful we had this weekend to spend together. This was such a special weekend to share adventures. <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-80276379555904709032015-11-12T16:29:00.001-06:002015-11-12T16:29:11.817-06:00Idaho excursions in the summerEarlier this summer we made a quick trip to Grandma and Grandpa Muir's farm for a few days. I must admit, it made me almost giggle at the prospect of a mere 5 hour drive to visit family instead of the customary 27-hour trek. What a treat to be close enough to family that we can visit spontaneously like this! Nathan didn't have any accrued time off at the new job yet, so the kids and I went without him.<br />
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It was such a treat to spend time with cousins (who we usually only see once a year at best). The children loved spending time together, and I was so grateful for this opportunity to strengthen family ties.<br />
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Each day was filled with activities. (Oh man! I can't keep up with my little sis- she possess an unbelievable amount of energy!) She loves to go hiking (she was also training to summit Mt. Rainier- which she did!) so there were a lot of family hikes. This hike (or rather, this one was a stroll) was just a few minutes away from the farm. The views were lovely!<br />
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Another day we hiked in the Tetons area. We had such a lovely view on the drive into the mountains!<br />
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Once onsite, we took a group picture before splitting up into two groups for different trails. </div>
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Becky needed to do a timed hike far and fast up a steep incline as part of her training, so I went with an easier trail that would be safer with Joseph. (And- who am I kidding?- There was no way I was going to be able to manage the hike she had planned!)</div>
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Our trail wound up the mountainside and through meadows of wild flowers. It was breathtakingly gorgeous. My spirit thrilled at such beauty!</div>
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Here is the view from the top, where Becky and Robert enjoyed sharing a picnic with the local fauna.<br />
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Our days were filled with all sorts of fun. Grandma and Grandpa made a lovely fire in their backyard one evening. While making s'mores, we really enjoyed soaking in the beautiful sunset and country view of the foothills. My soul felt so perfectly content and rejuvenated in the peaceful setting.<br />
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We really enjoyed riding the four-wheelers through the pastures and dirt roads that crossed beautiful grain fields. Grandma hooked a large utility wagon to the vehicle, and added several quilts for padding. The grandchildren would pile into the wagon and the youngest children would hold up colorful pinwheels during the ride. They loved watching their pinwheels spin in the wind!<br />
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We had many other day trips in the area. We loved exploring the lava tubes (thank you, Grandpa, for carrying Joseph at the end when he had hurt his leg! You're the best!). This picture is only half of our group- the rest of the grandkids were already playing inside the cave.<br />
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We tried to play at the sand dunes, but that didn't last very long.<br />
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Funny story...<br />
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I arrived at the sand dunes with my sister Rachael and my children long before the others arrived. We set out on foot to play in the sand and explore. There were an unusual number of bees, due to a traffic accident the night before when a truck of hives crashed. The bees were very hungry, and our clothing provided the only bright spots of color in the wide expanse of sand.....so we were quickly spotted. The bees wouldn't leave us alone since they were so hungry- they would crawl all over our clothing and we couldn't shoo them away. There were over a dozen bees crawling on each of us. I was so frustrated that I started running (and of course, the bees easily kept up). I spent several minutes trying to get the bees to leave me alone, then in frustration (and a bit of fright) I finally ripped off my shirt and threw it across the sand to get some reprieve. After scooping up my shirt, we all ran back to hide in the safety of the van.<br />
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We also enjoyed afternoons spent swimming in Rigby Lake and the Snake River. We brought along picnics and spent hours playing and splashing together. The kids especially had SUCH fun playing with cousin Ryan and uncle Brian! These are two of the funnest men around, and the children just adore them!<br />
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We all enjoyed our time together. It was such a lovely visit, and such a treat to see family again!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-24724166379195050012015-10-26T11:11:00.003-05:002015-10-26T11:11:44.427-05:00Strawberry Festival<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Our new home in Utah had a delightful tradition of celebrating it's agricultural history. The Strawberry Festival was a wonderful family experience. We loved exploring the vendor booths, riding the rides, and enjoying the festival food. </div>
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The ferris wheel was a hit for some, and not for others. Matthew inherited my severe fear of heights, so he and I really did not enjoy the ride. I went with Joseph, who whooped with glee the entire time while I clung to the rail and tried not to hyperventilate. Matthew went with Nathan and similarly did not enjoy the experience- see his face full of apprehension? </div>
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Every other ride was a huge hit. The faster it went, the better. They loved every bit of it!<br />
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The big kids ran off with a fist full of ride tickets, heading to all the big rides while Nathan and I stayed with Joseph near kiddie section. So we have a lot of Joseph's pictures and almost none of the other kids.<br />
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It was such a fun way to spend a summer day together.<br />
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Matthew and Daniel begged to go back on Buddy Day, when there was a steep discount for two 'unlimited ride' passes purchased together. They brought their allowance money and carefully counted out the coins. They were SO excited to have unrestrained access to the fun!<br />
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They jointly went on all the rides many times (I may or may not have told them the discount required them to ride together.....) and had a wonderful time. They were glowing with enthusiasm all day, and were always so excited to relate the minute details of each ride. I spent the afternoon enjoying a good book on a blanket in the shade. I kept a large bag filled with iced water and healthy snacks nearby, so the boys could come take a break of the heat and refuel their energy regularly. It was such a happy afternoon, and my heart was so full of joy. <br />
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The festival food was outside their small allowance funds, so we picked up dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant. Matthew ordered one of our favorite drinks- horchata. There were unlimited refills, and it was a very hot afternoon, so he drank over half a gallon of the stuff. My goodness! It didn't faze him at all, and soon we were back in the park enjoying the rides.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-84737295287985777132015-10-20T09:45:00.001-05:002015-10-20T09:45:25.790-05:00Saying Goodbye to TexasWe had spent months renovating and remodeling our house to prepare it for the real estate market.<br />
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My days were unbelievably packed with commitments:<br />
- running my art studio business and teaching 20 students each week<br />
- coaching Sarah and Matthew's DI team for roughly 6-10 hours each week<br />
- running my entertainment business and corresponding regularly with clients<br />
- remodeling our home (painting, removing tile in most of the house, (ugh! That took forever!), repairing miscellaneous problems)<br />
- fulfilling my calling in church- teaching each Sunday and making home visits to women<br />
- add on the regular demands of running a household, caring for farm animals, and raising a family<br />
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I look back on it now and think I was certainly crazy for juggling so many demands. I see now that I was struggling, but at the time I was so busy trying to stay afloat I didn't realize how stressed I was. I think it was definitely an unsustainable situation. (And comparing it to my life now is such a contrast. When we moved, it was a clean break from all my commitments and businesses. I'm taking a year off from coaching, performing, and teaching so I can focus on personal enrichment. What a joy it's been!!)<br />
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Our house sold in a somewhat miraculous way. Through word-of-mouth, an interested family found out we were going to be listing our house soon. <br />
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They asked if they could come see our home weeks before it was even staged for the market. We didn't even have the flooring completely installed when they came to walk through our place, and there were boxes everywhere. The painting projects weren't finished, so walls were covered in areas of different colors. But the family was in love with the property just like we were. The huge trees and land were captivating, and they loved the large fruit orchard we had worked so hard to create. The house with perfectly what they wanted.<br />
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The following day they placed an offer to purchase the house, with a closing date in just a few weeks. We never expected to sell so quickly! It was nice that we didn't have to stage the house for the photographs for the listing ad. However the timing of things was very tricky.<br />
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Nathan was expected to start his new job in Utah in just a few days, so I'd be packing and prepping for the move without his help. I was busy preparing for our huge trip to to Tennessee with the children for our Global Finals, and we had to be out of the house only 3 days after our homecoming.<br />
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What a whirlwind it was preparing to move with such short notice! I'll be forever grateful for the loving sisters from church who cheerfully came and helped me. A group of friends helped me finish painting- laughing and chatting the entire time. I'll never forget what an answer to a desperate prayer they were. More friends helped me pack. Nathan flew back to Texas to help us load the moving van and drive cross-country. The day we loaded the van, we were surrounded with an army of friends from church and work. It was such a huge blessing to have so much help, especially since I was very burned out from the stressful demands of the previous two weeks. We had downsized aggressively for months, but still had too much furniture to fit in the moving truck. So the day of the move we ended up giving away a couch, bedroom sets, dining sets, and more. It was a blessing to some of our friends, who were happy to inherit new furniture. It was comical to see the creative ways furniture was lashed down onto car tops to ferry home!<br />
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(Quick note: I don't often mention friends by name, but I wanted to record the following stories so I don't forget their kindness.)<br />
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That night we enjoyed a soul-nourishing dinner at a friends' house. Sheryl and Doug Wardell had invited us to sleep at their home so we wouldn't have to stay in a hotel. We were SO exhausted, but they filled our little hearts with so much love it was rejuvenating. They were absolute angels, and were the perfect thing we needed that weekend. She made beds for the children in her recording studio- which they thought was such an adventure. (She's a talented screenwriter and creates videos in her home.) I needed to return to our house that night and finish the final deep cleaning, so Sheryl insisted on coming along to help. Oh heavens, what a blessing that was when I was so desperately tired after a long day! I didn't feel worthy of such a friend, and her cheerful service was the perfect balm for a struggling soul.<br />
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In the morning, Doug and Sheryl had an exquisite breakfast ready for us. They served it on their beautiful fine china, which made it feel a bit like a fairy tale. I learned a lot this weekend from them, regarding how to truly render service. They were so loving and generous with their time, and they gave their best efforts to whatever service they rendered. What a powerful lesson to me.<br />
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Funny thing- before we could leave town, we needed to attend church that morning. (I had to borrow Sheryl's clothing to attend church- I had forgotten to pack Sunday clothes in my overnight bag! I did remember to pack Sunday things for everyone else though.)<br />
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A week ago the bishopric had asked me to speak in sacrament meeting that Sunday, and I had foolishly agreed...thinking I'd have plenty of time to write a talk. A few days before Sunday, I had realized my mistake in accepting the speaking assignment. My sweet friend, Gail Berry, had asked how she could help, and she offered to write my talk. She's gifted with words, so this was a perfect service! Unbelievably, she wrote FOUR very different talks on the topic, so I could choose which one felt 'right' to me. It did draw a chuckle from the congregation when I opened my talk by giving credit to it's real author. My favorite excerpt from her talk was this:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">I am an artist, and my soul sings when I am able to focus on a single project, like creating a painting. There seems to be a divine spark in each of us which longs to be like our Heavenly parents--and our Heavenly parents are the ultimate creators. When I became a mother, I joined with them in this process. It's not only about creating babies; it's about creating an eternal family. If I were a world-class painter, I might create a work of art which inspired viewers for a thousand years, but if I nurture an eternal family -- if I feed and educate and mediate squabbles and strengthen relationships and listen and inspire -- I will bless generations throughout all eternity.</span><br />
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The moment sacrament meeting was over, we changed out of our Sunday clothing in the restrooms, said good-bye to whichever friends we found in the church halls, then left to pick up our moving van at our house. We said a prayer thanking the Lord for our friends and experiences in that place, said a tearful goodbye to our farm, and drove away.<br />
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I was blessed with so many friends answering my silent pleas for help that month. I will be always grateful for their love and service, and it was very painful to leave dear friends behind. Even writing this now- nearly five months afterwards- it makes my heart sting to think of the sweet friends I miss. Even though we are very blessed with wonderful friends in our new home, I think we will always have a piece of our hearts left behind in Texas hill country.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-49549457620462636492015-10-06T09:42:00.001-05:002015-10-06T17:16:48.146-05:00Tornadoes and floodsOur trip home from Global Finals was pretty eventful. I'll always remember it, for it was rather frightening.<br />
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On our second day of trekking home, the news report playing on the hotel lobby television was filled with forecasts for a horrendous storm. The storm front extended from Little Rock, Arkansas to Austin, Texas.....which was our entire route for the day. Officials were advising people to stay indoors all day and be watchful for tornadoes. This storm system was a perfect recipe for extreme weather, and was forecast to spawn dozens of tornadoes throughout the country, with severe thunderstorms and very high winds affecting 10 states. There was no way around this storm, and it wasn't an option to delay our homecoming for another day. (We were scheduled to move to Utah in 4 days and had too much work to do at home.)<br />
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We carefully reviewed the safety guidelines of what to do if you're stuck in a car during a tornado, then set off on our journey. The first several hours of our drive passed by uneventfully, with just steady rain and low visibility on the roads. As we entered Texas, the weather became more and more oppressive.<br />
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The scariest part was when we were only a couple hours from home. The wind howled and was pummeling our van, as if trying to push us off the road. It made driving difficult. It was raining so hard there was an inch of standing water on the highway. Large hail filled the air, making a deafening ruckus as the hailstones beat upon our vehicle. The clouds were an impenetrable black blanket, and they were pressing near the earth so low that they touched the tops of the street lights. They were thick and pitch black, and were churning in a mesmerizing way. I had never seen anything like it.<br />
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The children were frightened and huddling in the back seat, covering their heads with backpacks as protection against possible projectiles if our windows shattered. There was no place to pull over for safety, so we sped on at 90 miles an hour. All the traffic around us was also speeding- we universally just wanted to get out from under this ominous storm. My friend was driving, and I was on the lookout for funnel clouds. As I watched out my window, I saw the thick clouds directly ahead of us start swirling.<br />
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I had often experienced intense nightmares of tornadoes, and this storm really terrified me. Now I was watching the birth of a funnel cloud, and we had no way to avoid it. There were no exits off the highway, and no place to shelter from this storm. Time slowed down while I watched the clouds dance in tight circles near us. The children couldn't see it, since they were hiding in the back seat, but they were afraid and were squealing that they thought we might die. Keeping an eye on the funnel cloud, I told them there wasn't anything to be worried about and we'd be just fine. (Does that count as a lie?)<br />
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At this moment, I was looking at one of my biggest fears. I thought we really could die here- if not from the tornado, we could die from a terrible traffic accident. Time froze completely as I assessed my readiness to meet my Maker. I felt a strange calm in the midst of this raging storm. I realized everything would be okay, whether we lived or not. I accepted the fact that we might die, and that seemed to eliminate some of my fear as I continued watching the storm with an unusual feeling of detachment.<br />
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We passed the funnel cloud before it could touch down, and sped to the nearest building we could find: a gas station. Rushing inside, we searched for a room without windows. We initially crowded into the refrigerator, then moved to a restroom where there was more space. We hunkered down with other families and listened to the updates on a weather radio. Over half-a-dozen tornadoes touched down in our vicinity. We crouched in the restroom for half an hour, just waiting.<br />
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How blessed we felt when the worst of the storm passed and we could continue our journey! After dropping off our friends, we headed home to our farm. Our path home was obstructed by flash floods. The storm system had dropped so much water that several counties across Texas were flooding severely. Our road home crossed a few bridges, and the rivers had risen 20 feet. The bridges disappeared under 2 feet of raging brown water, and families were stranded on both sides of the bridge. There was a crowd of people just standing there, watching the water and figuring out what to do.<br />
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We drove all over the country side, trying various routes home. Every route we found crossed a river, and every bridge was underwater. There was no way home. We went back to town and purchased dinner at Subway, killing time while we explored our options for the night. The restaurants were packed with other families who couldn't go home, and there was a tired but friendly camaraderie. The police told us the flooding would go down in a few hours, so we just had to wait for a while. After hours of waiting, the bridges emerged from the water and we could finally return home.<br />
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I was a bit worried to explore the storm damage on our farm- we wouldn't have much time to repair any problems before the house sold in a few days, and I was worried any damage might make the buyers back out. I expected to see broken tree limbs falling through the roof of our house (we have towering oaks surrounding our home, and limbs frequently fall off in storms- luckily we hadn't had any problems yet.....but this storm was <i>so</i> intense!)<br />
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Our driveway was packed full of debris- a massive rotting mat 12 inches deep of tightly packed leaf litter and bits of garbage that had been collected and deposited by the ebbing flood water. There was a dark brown flood line on the stone siding, showing where the flood crested several inches above the ground. I was so worried that our new wood floors would be ruined by water, so I dashed to the front door. (Actually, 'dashed' is the wrong word. The thick layer of wet debris was very slippery. I carefully picked my way across the mat, but as quickly as I could- sliding all over and waving my arms madly trying to keep my balance.)<br />
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It was absolutely miraculous- not one drop of water entered our house! I saw it as a loving, tender mercy of our Heavenly Father, who knew my situation and limitations. I couldn't imagine trying to replace flooring while moving in just a few days.<br />
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Gratitude filled my chest and we said a family prayer. We thanked the Lord for protecting us during our drive home, for protecting our farm from the worst of the flooding, and protecting our house from water damage or tree limbs. Our animals were safely huddled in the barn, and the property was fine (very muddy and waterlogged, but fine).<br />
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The Lord is so good to us!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-16365419858615023092015-09-21T09:58:00.003-05:002015-09-21T10:05:02.505-05:00Closing Ceremonies and elationThe closing ceremonies were such a grand affair. There was great fanfare and entertainment before they started announcing the winners. Each time a new event was announced, a huge screen would post the runners-up teams that placed in 10th-4th in the rankings. (Each event had 80-100 teams compete, so placing in the top 10 was a big deal.) <br />
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Each of the ranking teams would stand and wave while the crowd cheered for them. If any of the top 10 teams came from your state, the entire section of teams from that state with stand and cheer with pride. Destination Imagination is a serious 'sport' in Texas, where it has by FAR the highest participation per capita compared to anyplace else in the world. As a result, Texas is allowed to send way more teams than any other region in the world. With a team member count of 3,000, anytime Texas teams cheered, the roar was deafening.<br />
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It was like a great party! Texas also has a reputation for being the most hyper-competitive place in the world for DI, so Texas teams have always placed well at the global level. There was always a Texas team in the top 10 in every event so we did a lot of cheering, jumping in joy, and screaming. It was such fun.<br />
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When our event finally was announced we saw our name on the board listed as 7th place overall. We had competed against 86 teams from around the world and we were delighted to score so well. We cheered and screamed and jumped up and down and were just delighted. In addition to the regular rankings in each event, they also announced one medal for the top Instant Challenge score.<br />
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When they called our name for the Instant Challenge winner, we could scarcely believe our ears. We never ever expected to score first in instant challenge. It took us a moment to register the fact that our team name was called. We flew out of our seats into the air screaming like maniacs. Then we made the victory lap running around the floor of the stadium while the arena cheered for us.<br />
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Our team received their medals on the stage and then were able to run across the stage waving to the audience as they exited the floor.<br />
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Just look at these faces! This was backstage as we were waiting to have official portraits done.<br />
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We never expected anything like this to happen, most especially since our team was half the size of the others and we hadn't been able to have very serious team practices in months, due to our pending cross-country move. What a wonderful way to bring a close to my years of coaching DI. We were on cloud nine and couldn't stop laughing and jumping up and down and hugging each other.<br />
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What an amazing thing for these children to be able to say they were the best in the whole world in this event. It's rather interesting to compare this to our earlier experiences with DI when they thought they would never be able to get the hang of this instant challenge. Sarah didn't even participate in the instant challenge portion of the competition our first year in DI, because it was so difficult for her. There are so many emotions and it was great to see our years of training and sacrifice be rewarded.<br />
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After the Closing Ceremonies, there were parties until midnight. In true Global Finals fashion, the parties were filled with food, live music, dancing, and dozens of games and inflatables to play on. At the party venue the official scores were posted for every team in every event. Here we are in 7th overall, and our last score on the right shows our Instant Challenge score. Our raw score was 90 out of 100 points, then it was scaled to a perfect 100 since we had the highest score.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-28927674808505992902015-09-15T11:26:00.003-05:002015-09-15T11:26:47.249-05:00Global Finals- our competition summariesOur competitive events were scheduled on two separate days so there could be no conflict with the craziness of transportation across campus. The instant challenge portion was rather interesting. There was such a fun way of pumping up energy before the students went in. A DJ was hosting a dance party in a big plaza where we checked in for our event. Each time a large wave of students would head into the building for their instant challenge, there would be a long line of parents, coaches and other supporters creating a tunnel for all of the students to run through before they reached the building. As we ran through the tunnel all of the supporters would cheer and yell and give us encouragement. It sure helped boost the adrenaline level right before competing.<br />
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Inside the building we were divided into our different events and sent to our individual classrooms where there was a panel of 8 judges waiting. In the Instant Challenge event, coaches aren't allowed to do anything. The kids have to come up with their own solution and build it themselves. If I move at all to make any signals, they lose points for interference. So I stand in one corner with my arms folded and just watch- this is always the most stressful part of any DI competition. We train all year on a variety of creative problem-solving techniques and teamwork skills- and this is the fire to see if anything I taught them will stick under pressure.<br />
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Our instant challenge was an engineering one. In the middle of the room was there two ladders with a post suspended between them. From the post hung a large metal hook. The students were given the challenge to design and build a bucket that could hang from the hook and hold a cup of beans, a cup of rice, and a cup of water for a minute without leaking. They would receive 50 points for the strength of the bucket (leaked ingredients lost points), 30 points for their creative use of materials, and 20 points for teamwork.<br />
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They were given 3 minutes to build their bucket and one minute to hang it, and one minute to fill it. They were not allowed to touch the bucket while they filled the bucket. The supplies they were given were: a piece of newspaper, a small piece of tin foil, a paper plate, a couple pipe cleaners, a rubber band, a balloon, a couple Popsicle sticks, and 2 mailing labels.<br />
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Our team did such a great job pulling together and they designed a great bucket. Sarah folded the paper plate into a bucket shape, then she also put the folded the newspaper into a box-shaped container to add height to the bucket walls. They lined the inside of the box with tin foil to make it water tight. The handle was constructed out of pipe cleaners. Matthew used the rubber band and creatively attached the handle securely around the bottom of the bucket so it was stable and the handle wouldn't be able to fall off. With the extra materials, they had the idea of transforming their bucket into a peacock using a barely-inflated balloon as a head, and all of the Popsicle sticks and extra pipe cleaners as tail feathers fanning out from the opposite side.<br />
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As they hung the bucket and filled it, Sarah was the narrator telling a creative story about this peacock and how it came to be in this room and its adventures with bugs so the judges were entertained while the rest of the team completed their task. Their bucket didn't drop a single grain of rice or drop of water. Hurray!<br />
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Afterwards the students were allowed to go talk about it in the chill out room. They told me they thought they had done a terrible job because a few times they weren't verbally encouraging each other very often. They thought that they weren't positive enough in their affirmation of each team member but I thought they did a remarkable job and congratulated them soundly.<br />
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After the stress of instant challenge was over we could relax and enjoy the rest of the day. There were never-ending parties to attend, a fun geocaching adventure to go on throughout campus, and a movie party in the World's Fair Park that night.<br />
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The 'theater' was a massive screen in the park that played a robot documentary and Big Hero 6 while multiple catering companies provided more food than we could stand.<br />
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The next day was our main challenge.<br />
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This is where we performed our eight minute performance in front of judges. Before we could perform we need to repair our props that had been slightly damaged in the trip across the country. It was really hard to tear ourselves away from all the fun activities around campus and go hide in the Prop Room with glue guns and duct tape and paint for the morning. The children are not very excited to spend hours working on their set pieces instead of playing, but it was necessary. The Prop Room was a huge ballroom packed with the backdrops and props from hundreds of teams. It was rather tightly-packed and difficult to make a work space. We finally found an outlet (a loose one- see Matt's important job of holding the plug in place?) and got to work. It was neat to be surrounded with so many creative projects from other teams and see what ideas they had, and it was fun to hear so many different languages from the international teams. It was loud and chaotic, but so interesting.<br />
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We rushed through the repairs as quickly as possible and unfortunately some crisis happened as we didn't have the supplies we needed some times for unexpected repairs. Thankfully the other teams in the prop room were very positive and friendly and there was a lot of sharing supplies. The feeling inside the Prop Room was not competitive at all.<br />
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People were stressed about their performances but they were positive and encouraging to each other. The children could hardly eat anything for lunch they were so nervous about their performance scheduled that afternoon. We were a ball of nerves preparing for their performance. They were having a tough time taking things seriously during our rehearsal, and -boy!- was that frustrating!<br />
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Luckily our announcer was the best announcer on campus. He has quite the reputation and is often used as the example on how to be an entertaining announcer. He did such a great job joking with the kids helping them to laugh and smile and put them in and get rid of some of their jitters before going on stage. His personality was exactly what are students needed today.<br />
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They pulled off their performance without a flaw and received great applause afterwards.<br />
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It was such a relief to finally have it over and get to play the rest of the days Global Finals. After the performance finished they were able to do the dumpster party, where the teams throw away all the props they spent months working on. There is a lot of laughter and cheering and exhilaration as we are <i>finally</i> done for the year. This was so fun for them.<br />
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Ironically the wooden post on our bean stock backdrop had been falling over regularly the entire year. The students had been reattaching it prior to every competition because it just kept detaching. And now when it was time to destroy it, the children couldn't get it off! We had a good laugh as they kept tugging with no success.<br />
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After this the rest of the week was just play time. Here are some glimpses from huge Expo we enjoyed:<br />
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We helped sort thousands of books for a non-profit organization that stocks libraries in poor areas.<br />
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We played with a lot of fun technology. Most booths were hosted by tech companies or tech organizations, like NASA. There were so. many. robots. </div>
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The free photo booth was definitely one of our favorite spots. We played with this for ages.<br />
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Here is a glimpse of our team interview for television. You can check out the video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arjwU7pJWnk">here.</a><br />
It was such a treat to have that experience!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-83882636817924697082015-08-21T23:36:00.002-05:002015-08-21T23:36:22.773-05:00Passport PartyOne night we were given the choice to attend either the Passport Party or the Duct Tape Ball. We were a bit tired of loud music and DJ's (and we had not had time to construct duct tape costumes before we came, due to the packing/remodeling craziness). The costumes we glimpsed on campus were pretty impressive though. Check out this team's fun theme:<br />
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We headed to the other side of campus where the Passport Party was happening. It was a cultural celebration to recognize the different countries participating at Global Finals.<br />
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Set up throughout a field were different stations representing each country. There were various activities to do or places to take fun pictures, and each booth would stamp your passport.<br />
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We had so much fun exploring and playing all night. And of course there was mountains of food sampling cuisines from around the world to enjoy. There was music and dancing, playing, and of course, pin trading all night.<br />
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We were the first ones at the gate when they opened the festivities, so we ran as fast as we could across the field to catch this shot before the crowds pressed in too close and made photography difficult.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-46339494812430695372015-08-21T09:45:00.004-05:002015-08-21T09:45:34.524-05:00Global Finals- Food, Fun, and Opening CeremoniesGlobal Finals was a bit like being on a cruise ship, minus the seasickness.<br />
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There was So. Much. Food. Everyday we had an open buffet for every meal. There were dozens of delicious choices offering up tempting smells. Between the meals there were endless treats- coolers full of ice cream, crates of iced soda, and every evening party had tables and tables of desserts.<br />
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The Buddy Team meet-up had pastries right after breakfast. The movie party had catered pizzas, movie treats, eclairs, candy, and more ice cream. The Passport party had endless tables full of food from around the world. Fish and chips. Nachos. Italian bread and marinara dip. Sushi. Baklava. Tandoori chicken. BBQ Chicken. I can't even remember all the choices they had. (And this was served right after dinner!) My goodness, we were <i>always</i> full. I think we must have gained some weight that week.<br />
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(All-you-can-eat sushi? Yes, please!)</div>
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There were parties every night and plenty of fun activities to do all day long. The pool was open every day and our kids loved chilling out there during the hot and humid afternoons. They spent hours and hours playing in the pool, swimming until the pool closed at 10 PM. Our dorm was across the street from the pool, so it was a quick, easy walk home at night.<br />
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Several courtyards were stocked with dozens of inflatable houses, water slides, human hamster balls, obstacle courses, and more. Most nights there were dance parties with DJs, famous singing groups, and other entertainers.....we went to a couple of those but the children lost interest after 30 minutes or so. The music was very loud and not our preferred style of entertainment.<br />
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We were lucky to be selected as part of the Buddy Team program, where we were paired with an international team for some events. The morning meet-and-greet was where we met each other and exchanged gifts that represented our home state. Our buddy team was from Ontario, and it was such fun to get to know them! We brought chips and Texan pineapple-jalapeno salsa to share, and gifts of shark tooth necklaces from the Texas beach, longhorn-shaped cookie cutters, and Texas-themed drink cozies. Our friends gifted us with maple candy, Canadian-themed mugs and waterbottles, and moose-themed gifts.<br />
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The opening ceremonies was a delight, somehow we were given the tickets to front row seats along the floor! We weren't sure who was in charge of seating assignments, but we were so delighted to be up close to all the action.<br />
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What a treat that was in such a large arena.<br />
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The Parade of Nations showcased the participating countries in grand display. We enjoyed giving every team high fives and cheers as they paraded past. They particularly liked high-fiving the astronauts from NASA.<br />
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The music and energy were such fun, and we cheered our little hearts out. Each time a state or country was announced, the participants from that area would stand and cheer loudly. Texas had around 3,000 participants, while other areas averaged around 100 or 200 participants. When Texas was announced in the parade, the roar was positively deafening.<br />
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Matthew was also featured in a live interview for television, which he thought was very cool.<br />
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We were treated to various live entertainment from singers and silk dancers, and Buzz Aldrin did a speech to encourage kids to pursue more STEM-based learning. (It was rather odd- he acted like he was drunk, and the presentation was quite awkward. The CEO of DI kept trying to wrap things up and get Buzz offstage, but Buzz would have none of it and monopolized the evening for much longer than he was supposed to. It was a total PR fail for Disney (who hosts Global Finals), but of course the details of that never made it into any articles in the Global Finals papers that were being printed daily.)<br />
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At the close of the ceremonies there was a spectacular confetti drop. It lasted for several magical minutes. The children really enjoyed catching the individual pieces out of the air or playing with the drifts of confetti covering the floor.<br />
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Matthew even made a 'confetti angel' on the ground!<br />
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After the Opening Ceremonies were done, there was a party on the floor of the stadium. Everyone was mingling and taking pictures with students from other countries. It was such a fun and friendly interaction, and it brought back so many memories of my childhood, when I participated in the International Fold Dance Festival each summer. I loved it that my children were able to experience something like this!<br />
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(Matthew's in a stage of life where he thinks it is 'uncool' to smile in pictures. It's rare that I can coax a smile from him when I'm holding a camera....so sad!)<br />
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What a memorable day it was! I could see why people would want to attend Global Finals as tourists even if they weren't participating in the DI program. It's such fun!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-21590265296367002752015-08-20T18:52:00.000-05:002015-08-20T18:52:00.959-05:00Global Finals part 1- goodbye to a painting, a gun fight, pin tradingOur trip to Global Finals was so memorable! May was a very crazy month for us though. We were fundraising for Global Finals, packing to move cross-country (Nathan had landed a new job in Utah), selling most of our belongings while putting the rest in storage, and remodeling our house so we could list it on the market. My days were mostly spent painting walls, refinishing cabinets, tackling mountains of paperwork for our competition, and packing.<br />
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We were blessed with a somewhat amazing event- our house sold before we even listed it on the market! It was such a blessing in many ways- we didn't have to invest any more money to stage the house or have the uncertainty of spending a summer waiting for a buyer. In other ways it was a bit of a shock- we didn't have time to do our wishlist items on our Texas bucket list. There were so many things our family had planned on doing and unique places to visit before we said our final goodbye.<br />
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Nathan had already moved to Utah to begin his new job, so things were a bit crazy as I prepped for our move and our cross-country trip without him. I was rather worried about child care arrangements since Daniel and Joseph couldn't come with us to Tennessee. I was blessed with a kind friend who offered to watch over them during our trip, and in gratitude I let her pick one of my paintings as a thank you gift. She loved my painting of The Gleaners, because it was a painting close to her heart. Her 'home' temple in Arizona had a large rendition of The Gleaners, so it held special meaning for her. It was sad to say goodbye to a painting I loved so dearly....but I felt so indebted to her for rescuing me out of a tricky problem that I was happy there was a way I could show my gratitude.<br />
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Our trip north was interesting- when we passed through Waco we saw hundreds (literally hundreds) of men handcuffed and lined up on a curb surrounded by several dozens of police officers. Police cars were everywhere, and we wondered what the event was. The next morning in our hotel the news channels and newspapers were flooded with headlines of a violent gun fight in Waco between rival biker gangs. Over 200 people were wounded. We drove through a bit of history without even knowing it! I was grateful we were safe and oblivious to the dangerous event that was happening around us at the time.<br />
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After two long days of driving, we arrived in Knoxville. Teams were assigned housing in the college dorms and every city hotel. There were over 20,000 people in town for this competition, so the city was packed with people from around the world. What a thrill it was to be there!<br />
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From the moment we arrived, there were fun things to do and plenty of food to enjoy. Matthew and I really loved racing in the human hamster balls...I've always wanted to try them out! Every day the courtyards were filled with inflatable games of various sorts.<br />
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The most fun part of the week was pin trading, which was a bit surprising. I had expected the pin trading to be a somewhat minor part of the week. I was wrong. Even with all the games, rides, parties, food, and other activities, pin trading was the top attraction no matter where we were on campus. From the minute we set foot on campus, kids were whipping out their pin collections and bartering.<br />
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Foreign students didn't always know English, but they always knew enough English to ask, "Do you have pins? Want to trade?" It was such a great ice-breaker for the kids to help them start talking with each other.<br />
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Throughout the week people traded at every opportune moment. The tables, lawns, and walkways were always lined with rows of people 'setting up shop' as they spread out their pin towels or pin binders and started bartering. We traded on the bus, in the halls of our dorm (Brazilian teams were housed next door to us!), at the pool, during meals, and I even saw girls trading in the bathrooms with their pins spread out on the counter tops! Most pin-trading locations were WAY too packed with thousands of people, so I couldn't get any decent photos. I did catch these scenes when the kids 'set up shop' on a quieter stretch of sidewalk or bit of empty table during lunch.<br />
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Everyone had a 'trading towel' and a 'brag towel'. The trading towel was filled with pins they were willing to get rid off, and the brag towel had the completed sets of their favorite pins.<br />
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It was like a game. Most pins came in sets of 3-8 pieces. If you liked a particular set, the day would be spent hunting for the missing pieces you needed to complete a collection. It was such fun to finally locate your missing pins. Then began the bartering. What were you willing to lose in order to get the pin you wanted? It was all very friendly and positive and not competitive in nature. Kids were always so excited to make good trades, and there were just as many adults trading, too.<br />
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There were so many thousands of pins to choose from, there was always something to please everyone. I loved seeing the designs from other countries.<br />
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One of my favorite pins is from a Guatemala team. Instead of conventional metal pins, they traded gorgeous beaded animal pins. These teenage boys were pleased when we exclaimed how beautiful the pins were. They told us their mothers had spent days creating these complex animals by hand. What a treasure!<br />
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Sarah really wanted some of my South Korea sets, so she spent a day hunting down some of the missing pieces I needed. (And she found the rare and elusive characters to complete my Wizard of Oz set- hurray!) I really wanted one of Matthew's frogs to complete my own frog collection, so I searched for the zombie pieces he was collecting. We'd complete a set, then often discover something we liked better and swap it out for something new.<br />
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I discovered that many people come to Global Finals as tourists just to trade pins. They ignored all the events of the week and just spent all day trading under huge pavilions. Adults and teenagers stayed up until 3 AM each night hanging out in the courtyard trading, talking, making music together, and dancing. It was SUCH fun.<br />
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Some teenagers began a game one night around midnight. It was called the Pin Up Challenge. The object of the game was to start with a really ugly, seemingly worthless pin, then trade it up for something slightly better. Then trade that pin again for something slightly better. Keep doing this for an hour or so, then compare with the other players and see who upgraded to the best pin overall. It was such fun! I played this with 15 free pins that had been handed out for free at the movie-in-the-park event one day. I was surprised that this game netted me some of my best pins of the week!<br />
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What a fun week-long game of bartering it was! The pins made the neatest souvenirs.<br />
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Oh! I almost forgot! During one of our bus rides, we were chatting with the girls in front of us. They were from Louisiana. We found out that one girl lived on the Air Force base, and was surprisingly next door neighbors with Nana and Grandpa Kingsley! What a small world! We traded a pin with her so we could have the Texas Kingsleys give Nana and Grandpa a pin we collected in Tennessee from their Louisiana neighbor. What were the odds we'd meet someone with a connection to our lives? Such fun! And of course we had to take a picture to record our encounter.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-31102561286329486752015-07-28T10:38:00.001-05:002015-08-21T10:33:53.185-05:00Texas State DI tournament and a birthday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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The state Destination ImagiNation tournament was held in Dallas this year. We were so excited to compete and enjoy the fun. We did not have much time to work on polishing their performance after the regional competition because of other commitments, so we had decided we would just go to state with whatever we had prepared from the last round of competition instead of rebuilding things. We were determined to have a great time enjoying the pin trading, parties, and fun without worrying about the scores too much.</div>
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We drove to Dallas on a Friday afternoon (the kids skipped school that day) and checked in to our hotel. We picked a hotel with a pool, so the kids really enjoyed taking advantage of that feature Friday afternoon. Friday night was the massive pin trading party, where thousands of kids filled a stadium and bartered collectible pins with each other. It was SUCH fun. Several parents join in the trading fun, and I really enjoyed joining in the fun as well. Sarah's favorite pin this year was a pair of cute blue cowboy boots. </div>
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After staying up late trading pins for hours, we went back the the hotel, where people were so wired up and anxious about tomorrow that sleep was an elusive goal for a long time. </div>
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The competition itself was rather chaotic in the halls and courtyards of the venue. It was a crush of thousands of people all competing and moving through halls with huge backdrops and props. </div>
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When we went into the instant challenge, my heart instantly fell when I saw two vertical wooden posts on the table. I knew it was a bridge-building challenge....and this is the type of challenge that is our weakest spot. Performance-based challenges were a piece of cake for our team, engineering-based challenges were only so-so.....and I had only practiced ONE bridge-building challenge with them this year. I hadn't really spent time on the architecture concepts to teach them what elements make a strong bridge that can hold weight or span a significant distance. They glanced at me nervously and I felt like we were pretty much already out of the running for placing high on scores. </div>
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They were given two pieces of paper and two mailing labels and they had to build a bridge that arched as high as possible away from the table (the height was a scored element), and spanned the long distance between the two wooden poles. The bridge had to be free-standing, so it couldn't be attached to the poles in any way. It also couldn't touch the table. They were also scored on the creativity of their design and their teamwork. Bridges that fell scored a zero. </div>
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To my surprise, the team pulled together in a remarkable way. They had fantastic teamwork and they successfully completed the challenge. Sarah had a unique idea on how to anchor the bridge without breaking the rules, so their bridge was stable. It was a really creative approach and one judge accidentally gave a verbal slip and mentioned that they hadn't seen any other team use an idea like that. We felt good about our Instant Challenge performance, and felt confident we'd end up overall in the middle of the pack regarding final scores. </div>
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We had a wonderful surprise this day when Nana Kingsley and Grandpa Kingsley arrived to see the team performance. They had driven several hours from Shreveport Louisiana just to watch this 8 minute performance. We were delighted to have them there, and they seems to enjoy the presentation. What a treat it has been living so close to some grandparents. We feel spoiled!</div>
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Look what a surprise we discovered in my hotel room after the competition! For the past three years, my birthday has always fallen on the State DI competition, so I've always been away from home.</div>
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Sarah and Nana had conspired to sneak away my room key, then Nana and Grandpa had stopped at the hotel to decorate and leave these treats and surprises. This was such an unexpected gift. we had everything we could possibly need for a birthday party in our room- hats, noisemakers, birthday cake with candles, balloons filled the floor and my bed, and we had plenty of fun treats to enjoy together. </div>
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After hastily putting away a few lunch leftovers in our fridge, we dashed away to get a quick dinner and head to the awards ceremony. We took along the party hats for a fun team solidarity prop, and a backpack filled with birthday treats. </div>
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Here is our entire group- Eliza with her parents, then our family. Goodness, we spent so much time together this year! Eliza was more like a family member than a friend.<br />
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The doors always open an hour before the ceremony starts, and the stadium is filled with music and dancing while we wait. We were SO excited to continue our team tradition of handing out Mardi Gras beads. </div>
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We had exhausted our supply of beads at the regional competition a month earlier, so Nana Kingsley spent a few days collecting old beads from her friends and neighbors in Louisiana- where there is no short supply for beads. Nana brought several bags filled with hundreds of beads. </div>
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We'd load our arms with necklaces, then run around the stadium tossing them into the crowds. </div>
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Oh my goodness! It was such fun! We would twirl a bead a string of beads above our head and smile at the crowd. Then the crowd would all rise to their feet and wave their hands in the air and scream to get our attention so they could receive beads. It was like being a celebrity the way we were so enthusiastically received by the crowds.</div>
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The atmosphere at the award ceremony is very much like a party. It's noisy and festive and full of adrenaline. The noise makers we discovered in my hotel room were a perfect addition to the environment.</div>
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After spending one hour passing out hundreds of beads and enjoying ourselves thoroughly, it was time for the awards to be given out. I was packing and preparing to move cross country in the month leading up to the competition, so we didn't have time to really practice or polish their performance. We had just planned on enjoying the fun and festivities of the state competition and ending there for the year. </div>
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When they announced that we placed high enough to advance to Global Finals we couldn't believe it. Ironically we wanted to go to globals so badly in years past and this was the first year that it <i>wasn't</i> something I wanted to do. We had so many huge obligations coming up as we prepared our house for sale and finished Nathan's job hunt and packed for a move. But when they announced us we all flew out of our seats, screaming and ecstatic. </div>
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We were so shocked and pleased that finally we were going to advance to the Global Finals. Advancing to Global Finals from Texas is extremely difficult in Destination ImagiNation because this state is the most competitive place in the world for this program. The bar is set so ridiculously high in Texas competitions. Last year my elementary team designed their own circuit board, built it themselves, and wrote their own software to control it. We still missed advancing to Global Finals, just barely. </div>
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The bar is is set so high at each competition here that the types of creations/performances that win in the regional competition from Texas are on par with a type the things that would be sent to global finals other states or countries. I couldn't believe our little team which was only half the size (most teams have 7 members) beat the other teams that had more funding and more resources than we did.</div>
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We were on cloud nine all night and couldn't stop squealing and jumping and hugging each other as we went for the winning portraits backstage. There was a photographer there to take official portraits but I snapped my own portrait in the hall on our way back to the stadium. Sarah's face says it all. I'm not sure what Matthew was thinking, maybe he was disappointed that there is still more Destination ImagiNation work to be done for the year?<br />
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It's kind of funny that we were in the middle of moving this year because our other teammate Eliza was also moving the same weekend we were. I looked at Erin, Eliza's mother, and we weren't sure how we were going to make things happen and how we were going to raise enough money for this trip. I did know that I was not going to let this opportunity slip through our fingers without trying my very best to get us there. As far as I knew this would be a once in a lifetime event.<br />
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And so we began the long process of fundraising for a Global Finals trip to Tennessee. The registration fee was $1000 per student and that didn't count any of our travel costs. Sarah and Matthew worked very hard for weeks doing lawn care in our neighborhood and babysitting to raise money.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-12565777211374567242015-07-22T15:20:00.000-05:002015-07-22T15:20:11.119-05:00Easter Fun with Kingsley Grandparents<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
After the Savior of the World performance, we had the pleasure of having Nana and Grandpa Kingsley stay for another day during Easter weekend. What a delightful treat! </div>
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Here are some glimpses of our Spring Egg hunt on our property, and the Spring Baskets the kids discovered. </div>
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I like to fill the 'baskets' (I say that in quotes since we had downsized aggressively for our upcoming move, and the Easter baskets had been given away) with lots of cascarone eggs instead of all candy-filled eggs. We learned about cascarone eggs after moving to Texas- I wonder if it's only a Southern thing (or only a Mexican-border-state thing). Cascarone eggs are hollow, dyed eggs filled with colorful confetti. The tradition is to smash them over someone's head. It is <i>such</i> fun. </div>
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Armed with nearly a dozen cascarone eggs each, we had a colorful egg fight outside amidst giggles, people were laughing and running all over ambushing each other. </div>
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Joseph was so short he couldn't get his eggs onto anyone's head, so Nathan happily obliged Joseph's request to 'bring his head over here'. </div>
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(Nathan was still sporting his biblical beard from the performance the night before....)</div>
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We let our goats out of the pasture to join the fun, and Dad seemed to really enjoy hand-feeding them. I loved this- watching one of the top Air Force officials in the nation playing with goats. </div>
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It was fun to connect with nature and animals and enjoy the beautiful weather. It was so bittersweet since we knew we'd be moving in a few months, and we knew the goats couldn't come with us. </div>
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No visit from Nana is complete without her reading some of her special books- she always brings her collection of pop-up books. This tradition is so memorable to the children, and they always look forward to it. It's been a tradition for so many years, now we think of Nana when we see or read pop-up books in the bookstore. What a neat memory to have together!</div>
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(Note- see Dad in the background carrying out suitcases? They were about to hit the road to head home, and Nana realized they hadn't read together yet. She said they just couldn't leave until she shared her books with the kids. So Dad packed the car while the kids cuddled up with Nana. I love it!)</div>
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After grandparents left, we spent the afternoon at our neighborhood Easter Egg hunt. </div>
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Joseph was positive this was the real Easter Bunny, and he was pleased as punch to walk all over the park holding hands and chatting. </div>
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Our neighborhood is home to a petting zoo business, so the kids were delighted to play with a variety of animals. This was definitely the highlight of the event. </div>
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It was such a memorable weekend full of family and fun. I tried to just soak up all the positive images and tuck these precious moments away in my heart.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-36606144432558425612015-07-14T15:25:00.005-05:002015-07-14T15:25:53.681-05:00Spring glimpses<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Oh too many things have been falling under my radar this year! Some things from our spring that I don't want to forget:</div>
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The boys had their first orchestra concert at school. They were so excited, and it's been fun hearing them learn new things this year. It was a worthwhile experiment, but I think they're ready to explore something slightly different this year. </div>
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Before the concert we caught a group shot of Matthew's perfectly-normal friends. </div>
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One of my dear friends, Elizabeth Loderup, was dealing with brain cancer. Her husband planned a surprise party before she left for radiation treatments in Arizona. What a tender, loving night it was! Her house was filled to overflowing with good friends from church, work, and the neighborhood. My heart was filled as I watched two friends sing traditional Irish farewell songs to her. (One of the singers was Sarah's history teacher from school- she positively worshiped Mr. Lyon!) It was so wonderful to see Elizabeth surrounded with love so thoroughly- she is the type of woman who is a friend to everyone and just radiates happiness every day. </div>
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Joseph has loved attending preschool at the local Baptist church this year. His teacher, Ms. Yodi, was such a treasure! She was a perfect Abuelita- so loving and so passionate about her job. He adored her. She was always so patient and encouraging with the children. We'll definitely miss her! </div>
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Here are some rare glimpses of my art studio this spring. My Mixed Media class was such a delight to teach! I'll really miss these sweet girls!</div>
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I have several projects stewing in my mind, just waiting for some down time when I can create again. This year has been far too busy to allow me creative time for my own projects, but I look forward to setting up my studio again in Utah and jumping into art with a passion. </div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-14853667831122997842015-07-01T13:14:00.004-05:002015-07-01T13:14:55.759-05:00Savior of the World Performance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Earlier this year Nathan and I had the opportunity to volunteer with our stake performance of "Savior of the World" during Easter. It was a performance filled with music, retelling the Easter story from the Bible. </div>
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Nathan and I are good friends with the director, and she called Nathan one day, asking him to be one of the characters. He had never performed in a play before, and thought she was asking him to be a very minor character with only two lines. (The character names on the script were slightly confusing. We mixed up Caiphus and Cleopas.) After several weeks had passed, I pointed out to him that his character was actually a person onstage for a third of the play. Oh what anxiety there was then! He was so doubtful of his abilities. </div>
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Nathan spent 3 months attending rehearsals twice a week and practiced music at home as well. We had 'date nights' working on his lines together. I gave suggestions on his voice inflections and acting styles, and reassured him that he'd do a fine job. (And secretly wished I had thought of auditioning for a female part- ooooo how I wished I could be onstage as well!) H also grew out his beard for 5 months so his character would look authentic. No fake hair was happening here!</div>
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The week of the performance I contacted Sheryl Wardell, the director, and asked if she needed any last minute help. She did not have a make-up artist lined up, and asked me to head that up. Oh my- the cast was nearly 50 people. Even if I could be super-efficient and finish a face in only 5 minutes, that was still going to be over 4 hours of work each night before the performance. And I knew each face would take longer than 5 minutes. (Seriously- have you ever applied eye liner on men? It takes a while, with all the twitching and blinking they do.)</div>
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I was able to recruit a helper or two from my art students- two sweet teenage girls who enjoyed applying make up. I made charts showing how to contour male or female faces, and we got to work. I was delighted with their willingness to help- especially since they were Catholic and would be helping with an LDS performance. (Side note: I love the friendly way Texan churches help each other. Right before we moved, the LDS youth in our stake helped cater a fundraiser meal hosted in a Catholic church to benefit a Baptist charity group. I love it! Surely the Lord smiles on us when we can work together and find common ground like that!)</div>
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We were able to get everyone prepped for stage in about 2.5 hours. It was rather tricky working with donated supplies- they weren't the high quality stuff you'd normally use on stage. We were basically working with cheap eye shadows and foundations. I think it still worked tolerably well. </div>
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I was also asked to take cast and orchestra pictures before the show, so I made a quick dash to the stage for some hurried pictures. I think these turned out pretty well. </div>
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The performance was absolutely amazing. Sheryl had received permission to rewrite the play, adding several scenes to enrich the story line. The music director also wrote several new scores, adding transitional music to every scene and adding such depth with the background music. These talented women spent months re-working and improving this performance. The dedication of these women was inspiring. </div>
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The show was powerful. The spirit was felt strongly and I was touched every single time I watched it. These performers really put their soul and testimony into their performance. They effectively shared their love of Jesus Christ through their talents. </div>
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Every night the audience was packed. This performance was a free gift to the community, and had been advertised through several venues. We were blessed with attendees from several different churches and walks of life, and we hoped this show would share our testimony of Christ's divinity. </div>
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We were floored when Nathan's parents decided to drive 5 hours from Louisiana to come see the performance. We felt so incredibly spoiled to have them there, and Nathan's Dad recorded the show. (Now if only I can get access to those recordings......)</div>
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I am amazed at their dedication in supporting our activities. We felt so loved! They are mind-mindbogglingly busy people, and very rarely have any bits of spare time. </div>
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(Even so, a couple weeks later they drove 3 hours to Dallas just to watch my kids compete at the state DI tournament. That's a total of 6 hours of driving to watch an 8-minute performance! They seriously need an award! We adore them.)</div>
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Here are a few glimpses backstage of cast members...</div>
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And some glimpses onstage during the performance...</div>
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It was such a pleasure to work with this production! It was wonderful to see Nathan's confidence grow as well- we heard several people exclaim in surprise when they discovered it was his first time onstage. He did a fantastic job of bringing his character to life, and his musical numbers were just beautiful. I could listen to him sing all day.<br />
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Once again, I was surprised at the powerful way music can touch my heart. I felt the Spirit testify again that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. I felt renewed awe and reverence for His resurrection, renewed hope in His invitation to be like Him, and renewed dedication to follow His teachings.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-724102931337577072015-06-22T04:00:00.000-05:002015-06-22T04:00:00.246-05:00Little Things about TexasThere have been many things that have made my heart sing lately.<br />
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As we prepare to move cross-country and leave Texas forever, my heart has been enthralled again with the natural beauty of our area, as if it's being experienced for the first time. This year has been a very wet spring, so the wildflowers are uncommonly thick, covering fields and roadsides with vivid color. I've taken particular delight in admiring the wildflower patches everywhere, and I feel very grateful to the Lord for letting me see such a spectacular spring one last time. I'll sorely miss the spring parade of color, and I know pictures of Texas wildflowers will forever tug at my heart and fill me with nostalgia.<br />
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And my trees. Oh, my trees. We bought this property just for the mature oaks that grace it so thickly. Ever since I was a young girl, my heart longed to have a sprawling huge tree. In my mind, a perfect childhood was one that had a giant tree to read in, to picnic under in the shade, to climb, to admire and embrace. I love old trees so much, and my heart always fills with deep contentment when I can be around them. I take walks around our farm just to admire our oaks. They are so old, they make my own timeline feel so small in comparison. The history behind an old tree fascinates me. I love to wonder what life stories have been played out under these branches. I imagine these trees with personalities, and I feel rather protected under their far-reaching arms. My two favorite trees are the very biggest ones, hundreds of years old. When we first moved in I named them without really meaning to. They are the Grandfather Tree and Grandmother tree. The Grandmother tree held up our giant tire swing- the first home improvement project we made on this property. I know I will cry when I say goodbye, but for today I am relishing their presence.<br />
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I have really enjoyed spending time in our goat pasture, sitting with our friendly goats. They always come running across the meadow to meet me when they hear my voice. Two nannies in particular are extremely social and always lean against me to ask for caresses. They nuzzle their heads under my hands and flicker their tails in contentment. I love it. They are all pregnant and very fat. We are looking forward to baby goats with great anticipation- it's just like the delicious anticipation of Christmas, except we're never quite sure when the delivery will happen. The children and I run out to the pasture at sunrise each day to check on the goats, looking for new kids. We know we won't have the babies for very long, so it's a bit bittersweet.<br />
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I cherish the sounds of nature here. Each day I'm blessed with a symphony of birdsong. I love to lie on my back on the tire swing and gaze up into the green leafy branches far above my head, listening to the birds. I try to count how many different voices I hear, but the talented mockingbird always messes up my tally. I love the bright flashes of red plumage we see each day from cardinals flitting through the shadows of the oaks. When I was a child in Idaho I was familiar with robins and chickadees, but felt cardinals were especially exotic. What a delight it was to discover plenty of cardinals on our farm. Blue jays are my next favorite bird to see, perched on the fence outside my bathroom window.<br />
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Our property is graced with a grassy meadow, filled with wildflowers of various colors. I have loved being bestowed with gifts of hand-picked blossoms presented by chubby children's fingers. Joseph always takes delight in picking the prettiest flowers for me, sometimes making special trips out to the pasture just to collect the blossoms from the far corners of the farm.<br />
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<br />Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17227251365112255775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-63683599890310978272015-06-18T12:00:00.000-05:002015-06-18T12:00:00.098-05:00Sarah's acheivement and Starry nights-Originally written in March-<br />
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Boy am I proud of my girl! Last night she finished reading through the entire Book of Mormon on her own. She has been plugging away at this goal for two months, and was determined to finish this week. So during Spring Break she read all day, almost every day. She'd wake early to read, then only take breaks for meals, and continue reading late into the night. What a dedicated trooper!<br />
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She has also been doing a scripture journalism project to record her favorite verses, her thoughts, and questions as she studied scripture manuals and other study guides. I hope she keeps it forever- I'm sure it would be fascinating to look back on her early musings decades from now. </div>
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As I was typing this tonight, Nathan came home from his dress rehearsal for the "Savior of the World" musical our stake is performing for our community. He came in without a word, took me gently by the hand, and swept me into his arms. I didn't have a chance to grab shoes. He carried me out into the dark night, placed me in his truck, and away we went down the quiet country roads. When I queried our course of action, he replied that Venus was very bright and beautiful tonight, and it would be a shame to miss it. We found a dark parking spot on the edge of the wilderness preserve not far from our house, and pulled over in the pitch black. Not a house was in sight, and no street lights could mar the darkness. He carried me to the back of his truck, where we sat together on blankets admiring the stars. The stars are absolutely brilliant out here, filling the night sky with so many points of light that I am caught breathless at the beauty of it. It's so overwhelmingly beautiful, and so wild. It makes me want to either throw my arms up in the night air and shout in joy, or clasp my hands to my heart in quiet, breath-holding reverence. Both actions seem so adequate. </div>
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He pulled out his tablet and opened a star chart app that delighted us and guided us on our star gazing. I was so happy to finally find Sirius in real life, and not just on a paper star chart. That star that has teased my imagination for years. (In case you wondered, Orion's belt points to Sirius, which is located some distance to the left of Orion. It's a very beautiful star.)<br />
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I so dearly love the starry sky, and this was such a perfectly beautiful moment to share with my beloved. We felt so in awe of God's creations, it was thrilling and humbling at the same time. <br />
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I'll miss this place so very much. We're selling the Texas farmhouse and moving to Utah this summer. It's very bittersweet. On the one hand, I'm so eager to have a new adventure and fall in love with a new place. On the other hand, I'll always leave a piece of my heart in Texas. I love this place so very much, and saying goodbye will be painful. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-3202266296913024252015-06-17T23:04:00.002-05:002015-06-17T23:18:13.279-05:00February sealing with dear friendsSo many things were missed that I need to record. Now that the overwhelming craziness of our over-scheduled Spring is over, it's catch-up time.<br />
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In February I was blessed with the privilege of attending the temple sealing of two dear friends in our neighborhood, Roman and Yasuko Atkinson. I have been Yasuko's visiting teacher for several months, and it's been such a deep delight to serve her and teach her. Any time I stopped by- whether for an appointment of an unannounced surprise visit- they eagerly welcomed me with enthusiasm and treated me as a guest of honor.<br />
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Our souls have connected in such deep, meaningful ways as we've discussed the teachings of Jesus Christ, and our hearts were truly knit together as one.Every time I visited her home, my heart felt like it would just burst from overflowing with so much love for this sweet little lady. Her Japanese accent was thick, requiring concentration on my part to understand what she said....but our conversations were so wonderful. She was learning the gospel and was so eager to come closer to God. The Spirit was always so very powerful when I was in her home, and I learned so much in the hours I served her.<br />
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She was always so gracious and welcoming, and eager to have company over for a visit. I took great delight in dropping off flowers to brighten their kitchen table, or loaves of homemade bread, or gifts of homemade soap. She showed me her large collection of Japanese dolls, her photo albums of Japan, pictures of her family, and shared memories of Roman courting her as a young serviceman after WW2. She adored Joseph and loved it anytime I brought him along, and she asked to take him out to lunch for a special date.<br />
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We were such good friends, and I was delighted beyond words when they were ready to attend the temple for the first time. Nathan generously offered to take the day off work so he could watch Joseph, allowing me the chance to attend the temple ceremony sealing Yasuko and Roman as eternal companions. The 2-hour drive to San Antonio was long, but I was happy to have the chance to be a part of their special day. At the temple there were only 4 people there to share the special moment, so I was doubly happy to be there. The ceremony itself was beautiful and emotion-filled as this marriage of 50 years was finally made an eternal one to last beyond the chains of death. I had thought to bring along my camera and take 'wedding' pictures afterwards. They looked so lovely in their white temple clothing.<br />
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Yasuko later told me she had never had a white wedding dress or even a wedding. They had been originally married in a short civil service in a courthouse. Being sealed to her husband in the beautiful surroundings of the temple while wearing a white dress held special significance for her and fulfilled a long-held wish held close to her heart. Oh what dear friends these good people are to me!<br />
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After the temple ceremony, Roman invited us to join them for lunch in celebration. I couldn't refuse their kind offer as Yasuko implored me to accept. They took us to a very nice steak restaurant decorated in rustic Texan antiques and stuffed longhorn cattle looking down with glass eyes. It was rather pricey, and I wondered how much they'd have to pinch and scrape by in the coming weeks to cover this bill from their regular budget. After ordering the smallest salad on the menu, I enjoyed lovely conversation and laughter as the hour ticked away.<br />
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I needed to leave a bit earlier than everyone else, so I said my good-byes and -when they weren't looking- I ducked into the opening of the kitchen where I was out of their line of sight. I nearly bumped into our waitress, and sheepishly explained that I needed to hide while I spoke with her. I asked her to let me pay for the dinner as a wedding gift to the happy couple, and hastily scrawled a note of congratulations for her to give them instead of the bill. After one last peek at my glowingly happy friends I sneaked out the back door. What a delight it was to surprise them that way!<br />
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As I write this sitting in Utah- my heart aches and I actually cry when I think that I'll likely never see them again in this life. What dear, sweet people they are. I feel so privileged that I am able to call them friends, and I look forward very much to seeing them again- most likely in the next world. What a comfort it is to know that friendships continue past the grave. What a joyful reunion it will be!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-55967147127789918242015-04-14T22:36:00.000-05:002015-04-21T07:39:35.555-05:00DI glimpses and updates. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Okay- I typed up this entry MONTHS ago in early March and never got around to publishing it. Now it's old news to most people, but I still needed to record it. We've been uber-busy the past few months, and my blog has slipped to the bottom of my priority list (along with exercise, my social life, journaling in my hard-cover journal, and so many other things.)<br />
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I was juggling 3 callings- 2 of which are very time-consuming, plus extra assignments for a huge stake performance of the Easter story (Aiee! I need to record that story!), teaching 4 art classes in my studio each week, coaching DI, and extensively remodeling our home.<br />
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So here we are. Catch-up time.<br />
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We've been crazy-busy from January-March preparing for Sarah and Matthew's Destination Imagination competitions. Life gets pretty crazy during the competition season, and my house looks like a disaster with construction projects all over as the team builds their backdrops and props for the performance. </div>
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They did a phenomenal job at the competition and placed 2nd in the region (which was fantastic since the teams we competed against were all 3 years older than them, and we lost by a very small margin.) They did a flawless performance onstage and scored the highest overall for the Main Challenge, which was scaled into a perfect score. Their Instant Challenge was done solidly well, but the other team surpassed our engineering skills by quite a margin, pulling the other team into the lead by only 3 points. The scale is 400 points, just for the record. It was a very close race.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">They also were given two special awards. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">The </span><span class="il" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Renaissance</span><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"> Award is the most coveted award in the program, and only around 2 are awarded each year for each region of 200 teams. It basically means you've blown away the judges with a perfect stage performance or ground-breaking engineering. We were delighted to receive that award! </span><br />
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The other medal was the Spirit of DI award, which they were given for exceptional sportsmanship. This year we had spent days sorting the Mardi Gras beads we collected from a parade (I should clarify it was a family-friendly Mardi Gras parade with no nudity allowed!), and made gift tags for each necklace that wished the recipient good luck.<br />
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The kids passed them out all day at the competition, and loved doing it. It was like playing Santa Claus and the kids loved making 500 people smile with these gifts.<br />
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It's very rare for a team to get 2 medals at the competition, and I've never heard of a team getting 3 medals. It was beyond our wildest expectations to receive so many awards. We were all ecstatic.<br />
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After the awards ceremony, we headed out for ice cream before making the long drive home. (Early-morning church was such a killer after getting home later than midnight!)</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Now we are preparing to compete at the state level. Busy busy times. </span><br />
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Here are a couple pictures of our team gearing up for the regional tournament. </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-78840161902587545982015-04-06T04:00:00.000-05:002015-04-06T04:00:05.108-05:00Daniel's birthday cave trip<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Today was a grand family adventure. After living near it for 10 years, we FINALLY visited the Inner Space Caverns to cross it off our Texas Bucket List. This was the family activity that Daniel chose for his birthday this year. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">He's been to the Inner Space caverns with a friend earlier this year, and was so excited to go back with the rest of the family. The entrance was a really long ramp descending into the ground. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">We spotted dozens of little bats who were coming out of hibernation, and at times they were perched within inches of our heads. They were absolutely adorable! We weren't allowed to take pictures of the bats- it would startle them too much. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The tunnels were so cramped in some places that when the bats flew past our faces we could feel the air disturbance from their wings as they flew by only a couple inches away from our cheeks. What a thrill! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The formations were so breathtakingly beautiful. Sarah and I really enjoyed admiring the intricate shapes of the stalactites and other features. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Sarah was particularly keen to shine lights in all the many dark recesses where unexplored cave continued on past the reach of our path. She thought sit was a tragedy that the lack of funding has prevented more exploration, and she yearned to go spelunking further. </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This was Temptation Rock, where the kids could touch it to their heart's content. The rest of the caves was untouchable since it's a living cave with </span>active<span style="font-family: inherit;"> formations. They really loved feeling the shapes of this formation!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The tour was packed with geological information and this cave was so interesting to explore. We loved learning so much about cave science.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> The cave had 95% humidity in some parts where the water was super-active. Some parts of the ceiling looked rather like a shower head with constant rivers of water dropping into large underground lakes. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tf9eZf8XuNE/VSHEWsMAPDI/AAAAAAAALE0/P9pLNCRFMnk/s1600/IMG_6478.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Tf9eZf8XuNE/VSHEWsMAPDI/AAAAAAAALE0/P9pLNCRFMnk/s1600/IMG_6478.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">The caves were gorgeous and we really enjoyed our mile hike....but everyone's favorite part was the bats.</span></span>
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I had the delightful opportunity to attend the genealogy conference, RootsTech, in Salt Lake City in February. The beginning of my trip was rather more exciting than I prefer.</div>
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My flight connection in Phoenix had a rocky start. The plane we boarded was having several electrical problems, and the power went out twice while we sat on the tarmac. That was a hardly encouraging way to prepare for an upcoming flight! Mechanics came to fix the problem while we waited on the plane, and they caused another problem.....so we waited for a quite some time without power or climate control. It's an interesting experience to sit on a closed plane with hundreds of other passengers all breathing the same stale air- boy did it get stuffy! When the plane was cleared for takeoff, I was worried about it's flight abilities because the engine outside my window was laboring unusually loudly. It was much louder and more high-pitched than usual- like a table saw being operated next to your head. I was worried during the taxi-ing when the engine seemed to struggle to keep up with the demands being put on it. The engine was sputtering and coughing severely.<br />
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I actually texted Nathan my concerns so I could say how much I loved him, in case we did crash. We were planning out the steps to be taken by him in case the plane did have an accident. I did quip: wouldn't it be funny if instead of attending a conference and learning about our ancestors I ended up meeting them in person? Nathan wasn't much amused by my joke.<br />
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After a safe landing (and many grateful prayers offered in my heart), I ran to catch the public transit that would carry me to Aunt Mary Ann's home where I'd be staying for the week. The train would take me to the bus station where I'd catch a connecting ride to the suburbs.It was late at night and the city was dark. The train stop where I disembarked was located on a totally shady area of SLC, and the train platform was dotted with loiterers and homeless people. Homeless people aren't inherently a safety problem necessarily- I see plenty of homeless people in Austin without fearing for my safety. But these ones were different. In Austin I never had a problem with someone getting too close for comfort- they always kept a couple feet away. In SLC they would approach me very closely and invade my personal space, which made me very uncomfortable since I was laden down with two heavy pieces of luggage. (I was thinking, if they had a knife or something, there wasn't any space left between us to let me maneuver away.) I quickly trotted across the street to the dark corner where the bus stop was located.<br />
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I waited in the dark, worrying about how to defend myself without pepper spray. I waited and waited while the cold winter air nipped my extremities. After 15 minutes, I realized the bus wasn't going to come. I checked the online bus routes again and found an alternative route that would get me home, and the stop was located only a block away from where I currently stood. So I hefted my bags over my shoulder and quickly walked down the dark streets, past dark buildings and closed businesses. While I walked, more homeless people approached me, and loitering men started making cat calls. Yikes.<br />
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I impatiently waited at the next bus stop as the minutes ticked by. After waiting what seemed like an eternity, I realize this bus wasn't going to come either. (I later was told by locals that the Utah bus system is famously unreliable, and teased for ever planning on using it.) Sigh. I gave up trusting the public transit, and headed to a well-lit downtown hotel where I could make phone calls in the safety of the hotel lobby.0<br />
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Aunt Mary Ann was so relieved when I called, and reprimanded me for trying to use the unreliable bus system in downtown SLC. She had been worried sick when they received my email earlier that notified them I wouldn't need a ride from the airport since I was confident I'd manage on my own just fine with the public transit (after all, we've never had a problem with bus routes in Austin). Anyway, my attempt to NOT be a burden actually caused them way more stress as they had worried frantically about my safety. And they were eager to come find me and take me home.<br />
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So. Lesson learned. Sometimes when one tries to be helpful and do things independently, it doesn't always lighten the burden of others. When others offer help, just accept it graciously from the beginning.<br />
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Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Bliss were such a welcome sight that night when they arrived to pick me up off the city streets!<br />
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Mary Ann was attending the conference as well, so we drove together each morning and evening, and sometimes ran into each other at classes.<br />
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The RootsTech classes were just amazing, packed with so much information on a myriad of topics. I loved every moment in these classes, and soaked up all the new information like a sponge. I learned enough to keep me busy for years, but have only scraped the tip of the genealogy iceberg. I really look forward to coming back again next year and delving deeper.<br />
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One of the fun things I learned was how to find digitized newspaper collections and effectively search them for articles of my ancestors. It was a treat to read that my ancestor Thomas Darley had a prize-winning dairy cow named Blackie that consistently placed in the top three milk-producers for the entire Cache Valley. He was only beat by one farmer- his younger brother. His brother beat him every year. Such fun. It was even more fun to read the other articles on the scanned image. Victorian-era newspapers are a riot to read! This one described in detail an ice cream social held by a local lady, and listed her decor of choice and the attending guest list. Oh my heavens! What 'news'!<br />
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My heart thrilled at the variety of new archives and other material I learned to use in my research- I must be a true geology geek. I was on a intellectual high all week, just drinking up everything around me. I filled up notebooks with pages of notes, and learned as much as I could, dreading the end of each day when we must stop learning and head home.<br />
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One of my favorite finds was a souvenir I couldn't resist purchasing- a Tshirt that proclaims, "I seek dead people". I wore it to the Family History Library later that week while I spent a day researching my ancestors. It drew a lot of humorous comments and was popular among the other researchers onsite that day.<br />
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The entertainment was fantastic! By a stroke of luck, we scored front-row seats to Alex Boye's performance. That was definitely a highlight of the conference for me, since I just love his music. He was such an energetic entertainer, dancing across the stage and singing with such passion. I think I was smiling and laughing the entire hour. He is one of my favorite singers!<br />
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If you ever see him perform live- watch the piano player. He is a riot and definitely deserves his own show. That man could steal the show with the all the dancing he does while playing the keyboard.<br />
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After the conference, I had planned to stay a few extra days to do two things-<br />
1- Spend a full day researching and copying primary documents of my family history stories<br />
2- Spend a full day doing temple ordinances for the thick stack of family names I had carefully packed along.<br />
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It was such a wonderful treasure to spend some time in the Church History Library, where I was able to check out some of the original journals of some pioneers who crossed the plains in the 1800's. What a treat it was to see the handwriting, little sketches, and weathered pages! I also loved reading the microfilmed records of the Perpetual Immigration Fund accounts. It's invigorating to get so close to a piece of my own family history.<br />
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I was quite content to spend all day there and was reluctant to leave when they closed. My heart was filled with yearning to come back again at the earliest opportunity possible, even though we only visit Utah about once each year.<br />
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My last day in Utah was spent in the Salt Lake City temple- my very favorite temple of all. I'm in love with the history of this great building, and in love with the detailed decor and furnishings inside. I was so happy to have a day of no obligations so I could just stay for hours doing ordinances for deceased ancestors. The Spirit was so overwhelmingly strong that day, and I had many very sacred experiences while I served in the temple. What a blessing it was to have a day to dedicate in service of our Lord.<br />
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I'm so grateful that I was able to participate in this wonderful trip. I was fed mentally and spiritually each day until I could hold no more.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-77397276231450157142015-03-23T12:30:00.004-05:002015-03-23T13:43:13.546-05:00Cupid's Spoils<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We have a family tradition for Valentine's Day: Cupid comes calling. Our Big Kids are of course all old enough to know the truth behind Cupid's visits, but they put on a great enthusiastic show of excitement for Joseph's sake. </div>
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They help him understand the holiday and get pepped up for it, which is so fun to see. Cupid is really shy, so he only comes along when people are singing happily and cleaning (I don't feel guilty at all for making that part of the story!). </div>
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The kids all sang at the top of their lungs (Joseph happened to pick Christmas carols....I can see the connection between Santa Claus and Cupid in his mind) and cleaned the kitchen while I slunk around the house outside to drop off goodies. They were dancing with the broom and twirling while putting away dishes- it's such a fun thing to watch. </div>
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Our house is funny- it has four - FOUR!- exterior doors....one facing each cardinal direction. Two of them are used regularly as main entrances, so it's a simple thing to sneak out of one front door and round the corner to the other entrance for a quick knock-and-dash. </div>
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Each time I'd drop off a batch of treats, I'd hear the children shout in glee and come running to the door while I made a dark exit in the night. </div>
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There are 4 deliveries of goodies spread over the evening, one for each child. That child divides his goodies with the family so everyone has an equal share of the treats/gifts. It's wonderfully co-operative. This year Matthew begged to have the privilege of delivering the last drop of treats. He was SO excited to sneak around the house and deliver it. </div>
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He got really into it, donning dark clothing and bringing along a long-handled rake so he could knock on the door without exposing his hiding spot. I love this kid- he is so enthusiastic about whatever he does. </div>
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The favorite goody this year was a package of fun straws that pulled liquid around a pair of eye-glasses before popping into the mouth. They LOVED these and used them regularly for weeks afterwards. </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17166247149959534772noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465966922323020009.post-66924351290964724692015-03-17T22:39:00.002-05:002015-03-17T22:39:30.084-05:00Home ProjectsWe are working on a whole house-worth of projects lately. Every week much of my spare time has been spent working on our house. There is SO much to do! We had purchased this home as a massive DIY project, a neglected fixer-upper full of plenty of quirky 'character'.<br />
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It's time to finish all the endless to-do's and make this house pretty enough to entice future buyers. So. What does that mean?<br />
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In part, it means we finally are addressing the thing that I've wished most to alter about our home- the cosmetics of the kitchen. For the past three and half years, we've been busy like a triage nurse. It seems like there were always a multitude of projects waiting to be addressed, and there often was a bigger, more expensive project that would pop up unexpectedly to demand our full attention. This past summer it was our dead AC unit and insufficient duct work that needed attention and significant resources.<br />
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Before that it was our badly-leaking roof that always made a mini waterfall down the inside wall of our home when it rained. The wall was always saturated and began to disintegrate. Yeah, that project was rather important to address.<br />
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Before that it was our bad tile job in the shower, where the home builders had installed tile directly over drywall without any moisture barrier of any kind. Seriously. The first time we scrubbed the shower in our new home, the tiles popped out of place, disappeared into the wall space,and left behind gaping holes. Fun times.<br />
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Each year we've had massive projects to address in this place.<br />
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Finally- FINALLY- we are getting to the cosmetics. This month I have been busy refinishing all the cabinetry, painting every bit of door/trim/baseboards/wall, and patching drywall (the walls were in SUCH a bad state when we bought this place. it looked like a hockey team had free reign for team practice in here, with holes and dents covering each wall liberally.)<br />
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We've pulled down the nasty fake-butcher-block back splash in the kitchen, removed poorly-made shelves, removed some counter tops (and my Destination Imagination commitments have equaled a couple of months of missing counter tops....we've just been too busy to finish this project!), and removed boxes and BOXES of cracked tile flooring.<br />
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It's satisfying to see the progress happening in our home, even if it has been a perpetual construction zone for the past couple of months.<br />
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It will continue to stay a construction zone for several months, I'm sure. My vision of the end product is quite lovely.<br />
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Here is Matthew taking a turn with the hammer drill to remove kitchen tile. Oh heavens, it's nice to see all the horrendously-mismatched tile begin to disappear! The entire house has random colors of tile flooring, with no rhyme or reason to the random sections of various colors.<br />
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During the noisy demolition, Joseph and Daniel took refuge in our reading tent. </div>
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Most days my hair is splattered with small dots of various paints, and my hands are perpetually paint-stained as we work on repainting every interior surface of this place. It's satisfying to see the transformations happening. </div>
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I feel like it's an analogy for myself. I'm like the fixer-upper house, full of problems inside and out. It's glorious to see the Atonement of Christ at work in my life, gradually removing my character flaws and replacing them with prettier, nicer qualities. What a wondrous transformation to see as I look back over my lifetime. </div>
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