A Summary Of Where I’ve Been And What I’ve Been Up To

(Because if I didn’t abbreviate, this post would be miles longer than it’s already turned out to be. I’ve spent three days on this now, so you’d better be counting your blessings that it is only a summary.)

Let’s just start with the obvious and work our way from there:

Fond Memories of a Beautiful Wedding:

• My brother is married. This is strange, albeit happily so.
• Also, I have a new sister-in-law, the first one on my immediate side. Amanda is a lovely girl and she’ll fit in quite nicely in our family. I got to meet her for the first time two days before the wedding and am pleased to report that she’s pretty fabulous.
• The bride and groom were absolutely lovely, and ever-so-smiley. I think they are in love.
• The occasion marked the second time I’d been in the Mt. Timpanogos temple, the first being the open house before it was dedicated.
• Lots of family was in town, and it was fun to see them all.
• This was the first sealing, other than my own, that I have attended. The sealer had some very nice things to say not only to Tyler and Amanda, but also to everyone in the room. It was nice to be reminded of the covenants I made a little over a year ago. I’m going to be a better wife for Blake.
• I cried a lot. I’m glad the temple provides tissues.
• After the ceremony was over, but before the sealer was done giving counsel to the Happy Couple, Tyler let out a long, stressful-sounding, perfectly-timed sigh. Do you think it’s all right to chuckle in the temple?
• Holy cow, was there good food at that reception! Oh, and also at the pre-wedding dinner. I ate till I was full, but I’m not sure if it was enough. If only all food was delicious wedding food. Some things consumed: cream cheese chicken, a slow-cooked beef dish, rice pilaf, glazed carrots, Shirley’s rolls, meatballs, fresh fruit, a heckuvalotof chocolaty desserts, that one wedding punch with raspberries and Sprite. Yum.
• I didn’t have to give a toast at the reception, which was perfectly fine by me. If you asked Blake, I’m sure he’d tell you that I fretted about having to speak, so it was quite the relief to not have to.
• Blake and I were assigned several major roles in the decorating of the getaway car, including purchasing such supplies as soap, crepe paper, balloons, and Oreos. This was the first time I had decorated a getaway car. I can now understand why people love doing that. It’s like sanctioned vandalism. What could be better?

Other Activities I Participated In:

• Provo’s 4^th of July Freedom Festival Grand Parade, where, because my dad was the Volunteer Bleacher Seats Coordinator, we got to sit on bleachers, in the shade, on the East side of the street, and where, also because of Dad’s volunteer efforts, we got free yellow t-shirts. The parade was great fun, as usual. This year’s highlights: a great many air show flyovers, the Provo missionaries marching to “Called to Serve,” causing parade-goers to rise and possibly shed tears, and the fact that we got to hear a performance from every marching band (as opposed to just drum ticking).
• A visit to Gardner Historic Village in Midvale. This was fun. It was just me, my mom, and Auntie Colleen. Muncie is sorely lacking in browse-worthy boutique shops. This trip also included a meal at Archibald’s restaurant where I ate a most delicious turkey and avocado sandwich…probably the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.
• A visit to see my sister, Katie, at work shortly after we flew in. She works at the Boys and Girls Club and she totally freaked out when she saw us. It was a happy moment. Also, it turns out that she works with the Former Sister Wise, who not two months ago was serving as a missionary in our Muncie ward and who on one or two occasions ate dinner at our house. Small world.
• A few rousing rounds of the game Zilch, which we assembled and gave to my dad for Father’s Day. Who knew that six dice could provide so much entertainment?
• A visit to Wells Fargo to finally close Blake’s old account because we can’t do it in Indiana because apparently there are no Wells Fargo banks within close proximity to Muncie. But now our mailbox won’t get filled with frequent statements and we have $5.47 more in cash than we did before we closed the account.
• A quick photo shoot of some the apartments we used to live in. You know, so our children will appreciate good college squalor when they have to experience it themselves.
• Breakfast with my parents ward in honor of the holiday. This was probably the best 4^th of July breakfast I’ve ever eaten: pancakes, eggs, bacon, ham, fresh fruit, orange juice. Usually it’s just donuts (although donuts are certainly nothing to complain about), with the occasional breakfast from McDonald’s (occasionally something to complain about).
• An Independence Day visit to the Crandall Historic Printing Press Museum. I’ve long wanted to go here, but they were always closed and I was too lazy to make an appointment to go. I learned all about Gutenberg and his Amazing Moveable Type Printing Press.
• The watching of many fireworks displays, including those big ones from the Stadium of Fire, just barely visible between the big tree and the neighbors roof from my parent’s back yard. Also, on the 4^th, we sat on the front porch and watched the neighbors set some off in the street. It was sparkly loud and glorious.

Activities Which I Did Not Participate In:

• The hike up Mt. Timpanogos. Blake, my three youngest siblings, an uncle and a cousin who are training to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and another uncle all braved the snowy peak. They made it, finally (it took them 13 hours, on account of all the snow on the trail). Everyone came back sore and sunburned, which made me remember why I didn’t want to go with them (even though it would have been cool to say that I climbed Timp. Some things just aren’t worth it in my book, even though mountains are lovely and missed by people such as myself who can’t see them all the way from Indiana). But I did help them eat the 5 Buck Pizza we ordered to feed them on their return.

People That We Saw and With Whom We Socialized:

• Family, family, family. We visited with Nays, Wiests, Garofolos, Andersons, Dabneys. It was a happy coincidence that a lot of Blake’s extended family was in town for the holiday and we got to spend a few hours with them. Also, did you know that my youngest sister, Chelsea, is suddenly very, very tall? She is.
• Friends, friends, friends. In order to maximize our people-seeing abilities, we planned a friendly mass get-together. More people came than I thought would come, and it was great, great fun to see everyone again. I couldn’t have been happier. There were a few Very Important Friends that we missed that evening, so we tracked them down at work or whatever and made sure we got to visit with them, too.

How Provo Almost Failed Me:

• Leatherby’s is closed!!! Actually, it’s in transition. But, by golly, one of the reasons I came to Provo (besides the wedding, of course) was to eat a Swiss Milk Chocolate shake from Leatherby’s and (sniff, sniff) I couldn’t because they’re closed. We had to settle for milkshakes at Stan’s, which were still good, but they weren’t Swiss Milk Chocolate.

New Projects I Will Now Work On:

• I’m gonna make me a quilt because I want to be a Quilting Girl. I bought a pattern for a simple small quilt at Gardner Village and received some valuable instruction from Auntie Colleen (a Quilting Girl herself), and now I’ve been inspired and will go make me a quilt.
• My sister, Katie, has become a crafty genius apparently. She’s teaching herself how to knit! Now, I’m not going to go so far as to be a Knitting Girl (being a Quilting Girl is already enough to handle), but she has created some fun projects which I would like to pass on to my Activity Day girls, including a scripture bag made out of a cloth placemat and ribbon, and a cloth-covered bulletin board with the criss-crossing ribbons you can display stuff behind.

Things I Bought:

• The above mentioned quilt pattern.
• A BYU license plate holder (because, you know, they’re cool to have when you don’t live in Provo anymore).
• A new placemat to replace the one I received from my mom for my birthday (because I completely shrunk the first one)

Movies I Slept Through:

• Nacho Libre (it’s stupid. And not the funny kind of stupid. So I cannot recommend it).

Other Items Worth Mentioning:

• Tyler showed me his and Amanda’s new apartment. It’s pretty awesome in that it has vaulted ceilings and it came with a washer and dryer. Also, he showed me his flashy new red car, which is pretty awesome itself and which he shouldn’t be stressed about because sometimes people do give nice, big gifts for weddings.
• Utah Valley is blossoming and becoming like unto California. There is no open space anymore between Provo and Salt Lake (which consequently makes the drive between Provo and SLC seem much shorter). It’s all being filled in with things like carpool lanes, housing developments, and IKEA.
• We had a silly flight attendant on the last leg of the flight home. During the safety demonstration before take-off, she decided to have a little fun with the modeling of the oxygen mask, which made the behind the scenes attendant on the PA system start giggling, which made Modeling Attendant start to giggle, which made all the passengers start to giggle. Work with me...it was funny.

What I’m Now Dreading:

• A return to work, which has already taken place, and which hasn’t been so bad. But still. Work vs Vacation. Not hard to decide which is better.
• Now that we’re home we have to take the car in to get either the O2 sensor or the fuel injector system replaced. This will not be cheap.
• We have to go grocery shopping. Because we have no food.
• I have to teach Primary on Sunday, which means I have to plan a lesson. Good side of this, though, is that I’ll be teaching the class full of my Activity Days girls, so I already know how to handle them and their incessant giggles.
• A visit to the doctor because my mom told me I probably need some vaccine boosters. Oh joy.

Congratulations on making it all the way to the bottom of this post. I commend you. Now, if you go and have yourselves a lovely day, I’ll go and do the same.