First Day of School

What?  Are you kidding me?

Yep.  It's raining on the first day of school!

It's usually so hot everyone is in shorts and tshirts.

Not today.

Almost 16 and a sophomore.

Wow.

Where does the time go?  This is my 'baby'!

Driving Boredom

We had planned to leave by 6am to avoid all the Vegas holiday traffic.

Duff sat bolt upright in bed and asked:  "C.  What time is it?"  (He often calls me by my first name initial.  Always has.)

I roll over and look at the clock:  "6:11"

"Get up.  Fast!"

Meredith had been up since 5:30, and already had half the car packed. It saved us.  We loaded the rest, shut down the cabin and were gone by 6:55.

It was 30* and the wind had howled all night bringing in a low pressure system.

Miss Chris doing AP Euro homework and some shut-eye (yes, summer homework for AP classes), and Meredith and Darla napping.  Darla is still sporting her own game day apparel. Haha!

It was smooth sailing until just before Primm.  Not too bad, but all in all, it did add just about 2 hours more to the drive.  I had handwork I could have done, but just wasn't feeling it, so I joined the girls and napped too!

By the time we got to Baker it was 112*.

That's quite a temperature change!  82* difference.

The name of this road has always intrigued me.

How would you pronounce it?

Ziz-iks?  Zee-ziks?  Zy-ziks?

A Little Pre-Game and a Little Half-Time

Some pre-game...

Christine and Meredith in their spirit wear.  New this year are the BYU barrettes!

...and a little half-time.

l-r:  Ty Detmer, Robbie Bosco, Steve Yound, Jim McMahon, Marc Wilson, Gifford Nielson, and Virgil Carter.  Steve Sarkisian was in the locker room trying to get his special teams squared away during the break.  It was a really nice program honoring all these quarterbacks.

Today Tuesday

Today is just kind of a crummy day.  I have a headache, my back hurts from being in the car too long yesterday.  I've been on the phone and computer most of the day tying up loose ends from being gone.  I haven't done a stitch of laundry or even unpacked my suitcase.  It's still in the entry way.  Tomorrow is the first day of school and I'm not ready for it.  But ready or not it is here.

I did have some really great news though!  A dear friend who I've visit taught for years, has decided to go to the temple!  This month on the 21st.  We talked for quite a while on the phone when she called to tell me about it all.  It really is exciting to see the Lord's hand in this.  After all these years, now.  Everything just opened up and the way was clear.  I can't wait!

Mike's Bday

Happy Birthday to Mike.

It seems like you were born just a few years ago and now you are all grown up.

You are one great person and I'm so happy you are my son.

Have a great day!

Happy Birthday Deidre

Happy Birthday to Deidre, from the Happiest Place On Earth!  We send all our birthday love and wishes along with Mickey for the best day ever!Deidre is: kind, nice, hard working, good wife and mother, happy, easy-going, flexible, and spontaneous. 

Hope you have one awesome celebration!

Love Ya!

Started Out Good!

The game tonight was great.  BYU over Washington 23-17.  We went down to Provo at 2:30 so we could stop by the bookstore and pick up our $5 yearly tshirts and then over to the stadium.  The hospitality tent had the best enchiladas and build your own nachos bar plus fajitas and all the other regulars.  So we watched all the pregame stuff and got more pumped up than we already were!  The band came in, the cheerleaders greeted everyone at all the tables and got us going, President Samuelson came and made the rounds.  Ooooh, I was nervous about it all.

I made it through all the heat the first half.  I drank and drank and drank!  Unlike two years ago when I got so dehydrated that I almost passed out! The halftime was really good honoring the legacy of quarterbacks BYU has produced.  LaVell Edwards was there too and he made some nice remarks.  Our team is young but we look good and there is promise in them.  The quarterback situation I find fascinating for my limited sports knowledge.  It seemed to work interestingly enough for today.  Nelson has a little more presence, but Heaps has quite the 'arm'.  He can shoot that ball fast and sharp!  Speaking completely out of my league, I'm kind of leaning towards Heaps.  Time will tell.

Shaun went with his friends in the student section, and Duff, me, Christine, and Meredith sat together in our seats, which are the very same as last year!  What a coincidence!

Duff and JT were up early and got the water on the west pine trees.  We need to get the drip system figured out.  I made a nice breakfast for everyone with Duff in charge of individual egg orders.  We all took our time getting ready and then left for the game.  When we got home we were exhausted. Lots of energy spent cheering on our team and trying to stay cool. Soothing showers were on tap and then we settled in to watch what the sports news had to say and most of fell asleep on the couch.

Swiss Days 2010

I kept waking up during the night.

Wanting to be sure I got up early enough to beat the crowds.

Meredith and I left Duff and Christine slumbering peacefully at 7:15 and parked in Nancee's driveway by 7:25am.  We walked up to the booths.  OH!  There were so many things to see and decide on.

We walked and shopped until 10:30, got the most delicious scone with butter and raspberry jam--Huge would be an understatement!  We just got one and it covered two large plastic plates so we cut it in half and shared.

2nd strength.

Finished up the booths, then to All That Stuff In The Barn and then across to Seasons of Home where we committed ourselves to some pillow patterns by Amy Butler. 

Meredith's Gum Drop Pillows

My Zinnia (and others) pillow.

Meredith got some 'funky-chic' fabric for hers also by Amy Butler.  They had about 15 new and different Halloween fabrics and my fear is that if I don't go back and get a fat quarter of each they will be gone and I will regret it.  Yes? No?  Ahhhh! 

By 12:30 our feet were sore, our backs a little achy, and we were done.  After gathering our finds we headed back to the car.  There is the sweetest brook that follows the tiny street parkway.  I so wanted to take off my shoes and soak my feet in the cool running water!  Maybe next time.

The cabin was our respite with a turkey sandwich on a Lion House Roll, and a nap on the couch for me while Meredith read her book and rested in one of the la-z-boys.  Duff did some work, Christine did homework for her AP Euro class,and Shaun came up for the weekend.

The Petersons came in around 5, unpacked, rested a bit and went to SLC to meet up with Megan and Dan to celebrate Megan and Meredith's birthdays.

It sure felt like a Saturday.

Happy Birthday William

Happy Birthday to You,

Happy Birthday to You,

Happy Birthday Dear William--

Happy Birthday to YOU!

We love you and hope you have a really fun and happy day!

William is:  happy, smart, tall!. the leaven in his 'sisterly loaf', doesn't like to be left out, and a technology wiz like his dad.  Love ya buddy--

Purple Sage

Today was the divide and conquer.
The girls went and did the errands.  I stayed home and worked in the yard, cleaned house, changed sheets, cleaned the garage.  Duff played golf with John H. at Promontory.  He deserved it.  He's been working 16-20 hour days since March.

Speaking of the Halls.  They are our neighbors in California, 5 houses up the street.  John and Duff have been business partners for years.  They have a cabin in Park City.  Ironically, we do some of our best visiting when we are here!  Tuesday night we met them for dinner at a quaint little place on Park City's Main Street:  Purple Sage It is where the old 1895 telephone building once was.  A long and narrow space.  It was really good food.  They support local and sustainable farms, ranches, and fisheries so it was all fresh and amazing.  With my fish, I had grilled vegetables that were so delicious.  The entire restaurant only seats 70 and each booth is divided from the other by fabric draped from the ceiling down.  Very private.  We got there at six and stayed until 10pm. Eating slowly, talking, laughing, catching up.  They are such good people and we love them.  And now we have a great new restaurant too!

Main Street is so much fun.  Even if all you do is walk it without shopping.  Such history and old town.

What Happened?

and where did it go?  Last night Chris was asleep on the couch, the tv was numbly on in the background and I was waiting for Duff to get home from the airport with Meredith.  Her flight had been delayed a lot and didn't land until just after midnight.  So it was late.  I decided to change up my blog look since it is officially September and summer is over.

I found a nice simple fall-ish page on HotBliggityBlog.  I downloaded it and went to change my fonts and colors and I can't find them!  There was this 'new template' thingy which you can see I used.  But I still want to know what happened to 'fonts and colors'????

Can anyone out there tell me how to find them?

Independent

Well, BYU made their announcement to go independent.  I'm not sure I understand all that that means.  What I do know is that I don't like changing things up like this.  I do know that I'll love attending things at Pepperdine.  Such a beautiful place overlooking the Pacific, and close for us.

GO COUGS!  (Duff wants to get a Cali license plate that says that.....haha!)