What's in a Name?

Our Stake just started doing an adult institute class on Thursdays. The teacher is a former CES teacher, having taught seminary and such. Ashton saw it on the program this past Sunday and immediately asked if I had any interest. Well, when Ashton is interested enough to point it out to me and ask, it means that he really wants to do it. I thought that it could be a really good idea, so we made plans to go this week.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but we got a few surprises last night. We met the teacher out in the hallway as we were walking to the Relief Society room in the Stake Center. He introduced himself and asked what our names were. Now, he's an older man, probably in his 60's, or around there, so he repeated our names to make sure he heard them right. Well, Ashton said his name first and no problem there. Then came my turn. He repeated my name and I confirmed it. He looked slightly confused/surprised (not a name you normally hear) and asked me to spell my name. He repeated my name again after I spelled it. This is fairly typical of me introducing myself.

When we walked into the Relief Society room of our Stake Center, we saw that the room was full of older people, mostly women. (By older I mean there were a few probably in there 40's-50's and quite a few in there 60's-70's.)It kind of felt weird to be the youngest couple there. There was another sister there who was also younger, and another couple or two walked in, but for those few minutes, it felt slightly weird. Not in a bad way, just a little odd as I was expecting a few more younger couples since our stake is mostly comprised of younger couples. It made the dynamic of the class so funny though. Older people have such interesting insights.

Anyways, we found some seats right in the front and sat down. Then the class started and the teacher had those who were new introduce themselves (the class started last week, so some of the people there had attended before). Well, he came to us and he was standing right in front of us and when it came my turn, he told the class, "Now she's going to tell you her name and you have to remember it." He said this while putting his hand on my head and turning my head around for everyone to see my face. So, I said my name and immediately there was a general murmur of people repeating my name and some people saying how pretty it was and that they liked that. The teacher also repeated my name, trying to remember how to say it, and asked me if I went by "Z." I kinda laughed, a little surprised, and said that I have gone by "Z" before so, that was fine (Ashton was definitely getting a kick out of this, by the way). Well, that was that, or so I thought.

Then came time to read. We were taking turns reading verses and it came down to my turn, but this time the teacher called me, "Z," repeated my actual name, and then must have had a light bulb come on because then he said, "Hey! I can call you Zorro!" He sounded so happy to have made that connection. I couldn't help but laugh and then start reading. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I'd prefer any other nickname to Zorro. Ashton definitely thought it was funny because he laughed quietly to himself and nudged me.

After the class was over, and as we were leaving, I asked Ashton how many nicknames he thought I could acquire during this class. I'm thinking of keeping a running tally.

"Sometimes the Seagulls Don't Come!"

As we were walking into Gospel Doctrine class yesterday, I noticed the saying above on the chalkboard. It came from our teacher, who has the most interesting ways of saying things.

It was fitting then that we were talking about hardships, in particular the handcart companies. Not much to do with seagulls, which was fine. At the end of class, he brought up the miracle of the seagulls, but only to say that sometimes the seagulls don't come. He told a few stories including one about some latter day women who had gotten up in Sacrament meeting to tell beautiful stories of fasting, prayer, and receiving Priesthood blessings to cure their husbands of cancer and the miraculous blessing that was. While these sisters were telling their stories, there was one sister sitting on the bench. As the others, she too had fasted, prayed, and received Priesthood blessings, but unlike the others, her husband had died from his cancer. Sometimes the seagulls don't come.

I loved the saying from the moment I read it. I thought over my own life and the trials I've been through. Sometimes things don't work out the way I thought they would or hoped they would. I've come to realize that sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with righteousness or faith, or a lack thereof to obtain the desired blessing. Bad things happen to even those who have the greatest faith. I think the true test in those circumstances is not do we have enough faith to be healed or saved from that trial, but rather will our faith last even when there is no end in sight? Will we persevere through the hard times even when we've been praying for relief from the beginning and we haven't yet received an answer? Do we have enough faith in the Lord and His plan to give Him our will? For our will, as Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, is the one true gift that we can give Heavenly Father.

Sometimes, the seagulls don't come, and I find that it is those times that I gain the greatest strength. It is these moments that can either make us, or break us.

A Dream Come True

Normally after coming home from Maine, I get bored within a few days, especially while Ashton is at work. Most of the boredom comes from not having a set schedule anymore. I do enjoy being able to have some time to myself, but there comes a point when too much alone time is just as bad as not having any. I've been fortunate this time that I only had to spend one day where I was sitting around wondering what I was going to do.

One of the first things I usually do when I get home is sleep in. It's easy to do when you don't have someone waking you up and when you're a bit jet lagged. Although it felt like sleeping in, considering the time difference, I actually got up at 7:30 the first morning. To some of you, this really is sleeping in, but when I'm home, I've been known to not get up until at least 8 - 8:30. I was a little worried how long it would take for me to go back to my old ways, but fortunately a solution was provided.

My friend Tiff got back into Provo a little while ago after serving a mission in Puerto Rico. We were talking and she was saying that she needed someone who would be willing to go running with her in the mornings. Well, I've been wanting to go running for a while now, but not having a running buddy hurt my motivation to get up and do it. I could see all kinds of light bulbs going off, arrows pointing straight at Tiff saying, "Helloooo running buddy!" So, I said that I'd go running with her. The catch: we go running at 6:00 in the morning. Now, this wouldn't be bad if we lived in the same town, but since I live a 15-20 minute drive away (if there was no traffic it'd take maybe 10 minutes), I get up at 5:30 to get to her house by 6. I'm actually quite proud of myself because I have been doing it. I find that if I get up right when the alarm goes off, I mumble a whole lot less. It makes the whole morning so much better. Not to mention, it feels nice to exercise. So, my goal of getting in shape and getting up in the morning is taken care of. I'm a little worried about what'll happen when it gets cold and snowy, but I'm also hoping that I won't have to worry about that for a while. Call it wishful thinking.

The other thing that I was worried about when I came home was having enough stuff to do during the day. Thanks again to Tiff I have a big project to accomplish. Like I said, Tiff just came home from her mission and she has a lot of pictures that she wanted to scrapbook, but neither had the time nor felt that she had the creativity to do it. Although she's creative enough to do it, she's entrusted me to scrapbook her mission experience. Like I said, this is a big job. There are about 500 pictures to go in this scrapbook so it'll take me a while to do, but I'm excited.

Another thing that I've been doing is a photo session with Lance and Stacy! They wanted to take some family pictures, but didn't want to spend too much money on them so they asked me if I'd take the pictures. Can I just say that I was thrilled about the idea! A tad nervous, but thrilled. I love taking pictures, if you couldn't tell, and I am happy that they trusted me to do them. So Saturday we found some cute places to take pictures and spent maybe an hour or so taking pictures. They were fun to photograph! I spent the next few days touching up pictures and playing around with them. I had so much fun! I would love to do this every day. I can't put all of them on here, no matter how proud I am of them, but here are a few!

A Vacation is Just Doing Something You Don't Normally Do

So I got to spend the last two weeks in Maine on "vacation." My vacation was actually a lot of fun. I got to spend it with Jacob and Heather helping them with their new baby girl and two other girls. Definitely stressful at times, especially when it's the end of the day. You're tired and they're tired, and it becomes a battle of the wills. However, it's always nice to "experiment" parenting on other people's kids. Sure, that's what anyone really does, even with their own kids, but it's nice to sort of get an idea of what to expect, even if it's vague at best.

I did do a lot of reading, they were mostly kids books though and the same few books over and over again because they were the favorites, which isn't a problem until you've read the same book ten times in one day. Even two to three times in ten minutes is pushing it. When I did try to read a grown-up book, I got told by Liliana to stop reading that book and read to her; either that she would try to negotiate telling me that I could read that book when Mommy woke up and I could play a game with her now. The nice thing is that she can now read and so I could sometimes get her to read to me!

The one thing that I really came to appreciate though is quiet time/nap time. Although I didn't usually take a nap, it was a time that everything was quiet. It would be just Liliana and me awake so, while Liliana would watch a movie, I could go check my email, read, or just relax with Liliana and watch whatever movie she had picked out. I now know why quiet time is so essential to mothers.

Jacob and Heather were nice enough to plan a trip down to Farmington to see more family, so I got to see more of my family while I was there. It was great to see everyone, even if it wasn't for very long. It's so hard to spend enough time with everyone to make it last until the next time I get to see.

As always, I took lots and lots of pictures. It's a good thing my camera can hold a lot of pictures because I definitely went overboard this time by taking over 300 pictures. Yeah, I might have an addiction or something. The truly hard thing about taking this many pictures is that so many of them are keepers and over an extended period of time that it makes choosing a few wicked hard. So, I'm going to pick a few of each of the girls.

Liliana loves posing for the camera.
She did more poses for me, but this is my favorite.

Being silly with her cousins.

Such a great big sister.

Mattie actually let me do her hair in pigtails this day.
They didn't stay in very long, but oh well!

Mattie chasing me.

Bumpa and Grammy bought Liliana and Mattie these cute little backpacks. Mattie loved hers.

My newest little niece Jane.

Here she is awake.

Chilling in the pool.

Eating popsicles after painting themselves.

Happy Birthday Ashton!

So, last Friday (the 24th) was Ashton's birthday. Although he wasn't all that excited to be a year older, we had a fun time celebrating. Unfortunately, he was one of the only people that had to go to work on his birthday. (For those of you who aren't familiar with Utah holidays, the 24th is also Pioneer Day and just about everything closes for it, and there are also fireworks.) It was good for me that he had to work because it gave me time to make his cake and blow up some balloons. The cheesecake actually turned out pretty good for my first attempt. It wasn't the prettiest thing ever, but it still tasted good!

After Ashton got home, we went out to eat at Olive Garden thanks to a gift card from Steve and Gail! The food was really good and it was nice to get out. The amazing part was that we walked in and they immediately sat us at a table. That has never happened before, especially on a Friday night. The best part came later when the server came to box up our food. These are the boxes we got:
(For those of you who can't see, the small box says "Olive Garden" and the other says "Red Lobster.") Apparently they ran out of bigger boxes that said "Olive Garden" so they went and borrowed some from Red Lobster, which is owned by the same company. Anyways, we found it funny and I had to take a picture when we got home.

Oh, and for those of you who are curious as to what I got Ashton for his birthday, I got him an English translation of "Les Miserables" and also the version of the movie "Les Miserables" that he likes. I'm excited to read the book although I'm trying to wait for him to start/finish it. It's a wicked big book so I may be waiting for a while.

Here are some more pictures:

It took a little while to get all the candles lit, but the pyro in me loved it!

Making a wish.
Probably wished I had left some candles off,
especially since he was stuffed from dinner.

And he huffed and puffed and blew all the candles out. YAY!

Hooray For Broken Things Being Fixed!

We finally got our desktop computer fixed. The screen kept flickering and got so bad that we'd have to shut down the computer for a while if we wanted to play a game and even that didn't work. Eventually the computer wouldn't even turn on. Well, we figured out that it was the motherboard and since the computer was still under warranty, Dell sent someone to replace the part. He came, the part was replaced, and now we have our computer back! Thankfully, during this whole thing, we still had the laptop, but it's nice to have our other computer back.

Mandy, Andrew, and little Austin came into town last week along with Aunt Marcia. We haven't seen them in a long time so we got together with the whole family for dinner. Since we were all together, we celebrated Ashton and Gail's birthdays. We had a great time and I'm so glad that I had brought my camera.

We're excited to celebrate Ashton's birthday tomorrow! Ok, so I'm probably more excited than he is. I think he's just excited about the cake. He'll use any excuse for cake.

"Music time" with toy dishes. Some people decided to wear the dishes rather than play them.

We got out the Boccie ball to play and Sadie decided that she wanted one of the balls.

Carrying the ball

Us with Austin. We were so happy to finally meet him.

How many people does it take to light candles on a cake?

Gail and Ashton blowing out candles.

The frosting made good lipstick. Looking good Mandy!

Andrew decided to try out the new look, too.

Something For Everyone

Ashton and I tend to read a lot of books. We plan on having an entire room dedicated to books when we actually get a house. The entire room is not just because we like books, but also because that's how much space we're going to need to store our books especially when we gather the rest of our books from the various parents' houses.

Although we both like to read, we enjoy different genres of books. I tend to have a more widely accepting range of genres. I enjoy history books just as much as classical and fantasy/adventure books, if not more. I am by no means a die-hard science fiction fan and usually steer away from, what I consider, the really weird stuff. I'm not big into aliens and the like. As it is with any genre, there are good writers and bad writers. The good writers can make just about anything interesting.

Ashton leans almost solely towards the sci-fi, adventure, and fantasy books. I think this fact became more apparent when I tried to get him to read "Eight Cousins" by Louisa May Alcott and, although it's a short book, he couldn't finish it. I probably should have known better than to recommend the book to him, but at the time it sounded like a good idea since we were talking about books I enjoyed when I was younger and "Eight Cousins" was one of my favorite stories. Live and learn.

In any case, I just finished a couple of books (I tend to read a couple at a time) that I thought that I would mention. The first book that I finished was a history called, "The Last Days of the Incas" by Kim MacQuarrie. The book is what you'd expect from the title, although it does cover the exploration of Inca ruins in more recent years. The author did an amazing job researching, going back to the Spanish chroniclers to gain information and does a good job presenting the facts, going so far as to mention discrepancies and present both sides. For anyone who is interested in Incan history or even in South American history, this is a really good book.

The second book that I just finished is "The Eye of the World" by Robert Jordan. This is the first book in a series called "The Wheel of Time." It's a fantasy/adventure book with the magic and mythical world involving humans and other creatures. Although it is fantasy, there are a lot of political strains as well as a good vs evil theme. I began reading this book because it was the book that really got Ashton interested in reading. So, being curious as to what about it made him interested in reading, I decided that I was going to read it for myself, much to his surprise.

Although I wasn't familiar with some of the things that they talked about, I enjoyed the book. The book is well-rounded in that there are good descriptions, which can be annoying when you just want to get to the action, but his characters are also well written. They have a depth and support about them that make them more real to the reader, which is important to a fantasy book I think. There is also a lot of suspense to the book and, although I can be a very nervous reader when there's suspense, it was fun to read.

I haven't decided yet whether I want to continue on in the series. Apparently the last book of the series hasn't come out yet and is being worked on by someone other than Jordan, as he (Jordan) is dead. I don't really want to start reading the series if I just have to wait for the next book to come out. However, given the fact that I tend to read multiple books at a time, it'll probably take me a little while to get through all the books, so the next one could be out before I get to it. We'll see.

By the way, if any of you have any books that you want to recommend, I'd like to hear!