Ode to Syliva

I should introduce our newest traveling companion - Sylvia.


She is great! She's a good navigator, lets me know of turns coming up in the road, tells us when we're going to arrive at our destination, suggests when to make legal u-turns, and recalculates the route when we stray off course.

We still need a map and The Next Stop book - but it's fun to have Sylvia with us this year!

Day 2: Get your Kicks on Route 80!

Lots of driving today... We left North Platte early after peeling the bugs from the car (and ours wasn't the worst case in the parking lot!). We drove for a bit, stopping at a few rest stops (which are lovely - they really are! I've never seen such beautifully landscaped and scrubbed clean rest stops!) along the way. We drove under the arch in Kearney, and made our way to Omaha, where we stopped at Winter Quarters. What a nice stop! A sister missionary took us on a tour of the visitor's center, then we walked across the street to the cemetery and temple. It truly is amazing how those early pioneers survived the winter there with sparse living conditions and supplies!

We got back on the road and continued heading east. We're having a fine time in the car, listening to both music CDs and The Fire of the Covenant book on CD. (A great book for this trip... we've passed through some of the places the pioneers in the book have been to!) We're getting in a lot of talking as well, and laughing! (Seriously... we're lucky Holly didn't fall out of the car somewhere between Des Moines and Iowa City!)

Davenport, Iowa is our stopping place tonight. We saw lightning bugs around our hotel!

Some pics from the day:

Winter Quarters Visitor's Center

Winter Quarters Temple

Day 1: Palmyra or Bust!

"Life is a highway, and I wanna ride it all day long!"
We got an early start to the day after getting some last-minute things taken care of at home. We waved good-bye to Mom, Dad, Regina (Tubby wasn't around; we said our good-byes yesterday), and Jean (who was walking to church), and then we were off.

Our first stop came pretty early - Hart's at 7200 South! We topped off the gas tank and were on our way once again. It was a great day to drive - clear skies, no wind, light traffic.

We stopped at Little America for our 50 cent ice cream cones. What a prime location for them - in the middle of nothing, just when you're ready for a break! We took a few moments to walk around and enjoy the day, and then headed on down the road.

Shortly after leaving Little America, I witnessed a tragic event, which I'm sure will alter the course of my life forever. A prairie dog ran out to the middle of the road in front of us. The car in front of me moved toward the middle so that the prairie dog was under the car. I moved toward the right so that I missed him entirely. The semi behind us, however, was not so quick to respond to the whims of a prairie dog... and I was watching from my rear-view window. All (prairie) dogs go to heaven!

We stopped for the night in North Platte, Nebraska. We did that on purpose... just a little bit farther down the road than Cheyenne, and on the other side of the mountain/central time zone.

Here's some pictures from the day!

"Leavin' in an Ion... Don't know when we'll be back again..." (whenever the money runs out!)

Welcome to the big WY-O!

Windless windmills... no movement whatsoever!

50 cent goodness!

Cake Decorating Week 4

We made it! We learned the last steps to the rose... let's just say that it's good that they aren't my favorite flower! Joee says that she'll practice so hers will be ready for my wedding cake (and after 10 years of practice, I think that they'll be perfect!).
Joee was so happy I came, she baked me a cake! Yum!

Cake Decorating Week 3!

Joee and I had our third class last night. We learned the second step to making the rose. I really need to practice! We also used a few different tips to make different little flowers, stars and borders. We practiced making clowns, which would make a cute cake. (I wonder, though, if part of the reason why little kids are afraid of clowns is because their moms make them clown cakes, and their local Robert's is out of clown heads, so the clowns on the cakes end up being headless...!) My favorite tip thus far is the big star tip... what great coverage! My icing this week was much better - not so stiff (it probably helps that Joee made a double batch and gave me half). Joee was so excited for me to come, she made me 8 cupcakes!

Orem Daze

After cake decorating, Joee and I put our cakes in her car, and ran down the street to where Lee and Bo were waiting for us and waiting for the Orem Days parade to start! We watched the parade (okay as parades go... I love the Midvale Days parade because I know everyone... maybe if I knew everyone in Orem it would have been more fun!), then went to the park for food! Yum! What huge lines! But well worth the wait! We ate, and looked at the booths really quick (David Archuleta earrings!?!). We walked down the street for the fireworks. A pretty good show! A better show was the side show - there was a lot of fall-out from the fireworks that was falling into the street and on people... I had a big chunk of firework shell land in my lap! The kids loved chasing the chunks that were still flaming. No one in charge (i.e., firemen and policemen!) seemed too concerned... A good time had by all! Thanks, Bartholomews for a fun night!

Cake Decorating Week 2

Last night was my and Joee's second cake decorating class. Last week was an introduction, the teacher showed us how to make the icing, how to put it on the cake, and showed us all the stuff we'd need. (it's a lot of stuff!)
This week we practiced making stars, made the base of the rose, and practiced our icing writing. Joee made my cake, a flag cake (for Flay Day yesterday), and she made a heart cake for Father's Day. I made my icing at Joee's house under her supervision... it came out so stiff! My hand hurt so bad! I showed it to Mom when I was finishing my cake at home, and she agreed... too stiff! But now I know... and I know how to make it not so stiff so my hand doesn't hurt after just a few rows of stars.
My cake was not so beautiful... but it tastes the same, beautiful or not!
Thanks, Joee, for making my cake, for being my icing mentor and for decorating a cute cake! Thanks Mom, Dad, Holly and JoAnne for eating my un-beautiful cake!

Why ain't it always summer?

Hooray for the first week of summer! Here's some reasons why summer is great:

1. Sleeping in. Even if it's just until 8:00 - hey, at least I haven't been at school for a while already!

2. We started the deep summer cleaning of the house early this year - in March. We'd start a room on Saturday, and finish it up during the week. The house is almost done - so no guilty feelings about sleeping in and having fun!

3. Midnight movies. Holly and I went to see Kung Fu Panda last night at Jordan Commons at midnight. I would not have been able to function well at school today after staying up so late watching this flick! (And a pretty enjoyable movie at that. I want to go to China!)

4. Talking on the phone. To Joee. Late at night. Brings back memories of not too long ago when we did that often - not just in the summer or Friday nights when we didn't have anything else to do or anything to wake up early for!

5. We have 3 weeks before we leave for the Pageant!

6. No school work! I can come home or be at home and can cook dinner, work on projects, watch a movie, take a walk, talk on the phone - and not have to worry about preparing for school tomorrow!

7. Blogging my uneventful life every day!


Here's some ways summer could be better:

1. With Mom being gone and Dad leaving for work mid-afternoon, and Holly working... I'm at a loss for real company! I enjoy being alone in my house once in a while for short amounts of time... but a week has nearly done me in.

2. Some sun! What is the deal with all the rain we're getting? This is June, for crying out loud!

3. I need some motivation to do something... anything! I've never had the summer dulldrums so early in the summer (maybe it has to do with no one being around). I have lots of projects - stitching, scrapbooking, cleaning, reading, yard work. Now I just need to find the inner motivation to get up and do some things!

4. I have to do my summer reading for school... ugh.

5. I need to study my new core so I know what I'm doing next year! This isn't a bad thing... but something that needs to be done, and something I'll be glad I don't have to do next summer.

6. I'm still hungry for lunch at 11:00. Hopefully this will wear off. Next year I'll eat at 12:15 - I might starve!

7. More school dreams... 2 more since my post about it... Ahhhhhh!

ABCD

A- Attached or Single: Single

B- Best Friend: Joee

C- Cake or Pie: Cake

D- Day of Choice: Thursday... it's a great TV night, there's still time to look forward to the weekend (I think this all stems back to elementary school, when Thursdays were early out, we had library and music and not much else)

E- Essential Item: Diet Coke

F- Favorite Color: Red

G- Gummy bears or worms: Worms

H- Hometown: Midvale

I- Indulgence: books

J- January or July: July (one of the 3 reasons to be a teacher - June, July and August!)

K- Kids: just 27 little darlings, recently released into the wild world of summer

L- Life is incomplete without: chocolate

M- Marriage Date: in about 10 years or so

N- Number of Siblings: 1 sister, 1 cat, 1 dog

O- Oranges or Apples: Apples

P- Phobias or Fears: Spiders

Q- Quote: "If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats."

R- Ring size: 8

S- Season: summer

T- Time saver: driving really fast (ha ha)

U- Unknown Fact About Me: is there really anything unknown about me?

V- Very Favorite Store: Utah Idaho

W- Worst Habit: being lazy

X- X-ray or Ultra sound: at this point in life, neither if it can be avoided

Y- Your Favorite Food: Chinese (anything made by Miss Gong, my Chinese maid!)

Z- Zodiac: Scorpio

Dreams or Nightmares?

Hoorah! School's out for summer!

Unfortunately, school will begin again before I know it. Friday night - my first night of fun and relaxation, my dreams (which I don't usually remember anyway) were about school. Saturday night - after a whole day of non-school thought - my dreams were about school. Hopefully, tonight will be different!