The Last Few Weeks

So the last few weeks I've been crazy busy running from place to place, including AZ! So here are some moments I've enjoyed in February.

Truffle night at Anneke's. We made mint, lime, and cinnamon truffles that were absolutely amazing, especially for chocolate lovers like myself!

Emily's wedding. I flew down to Phoenix and got to attend Emily's wedding in the Mesa Temple. We've gone through elementary, junior high and high school, and then all the way through BYU's nursing program together. Hard to believe we've known each other so long!

While I was in AZ I got to spend time with the family in Gilbert. They're so much fun to be with! This is Spencer, Greg, and I standing outside by the century plant in front of our house. It's blooming this year and I wanted to give an accurate protrayal of it's height. It's huge!

There have been a plethora of weddings that I've gone to lately, but Casey's was special because I got to help Sheryl make her cake! First time I've ever played with fondent, and it was so much fun!

Jenny's birthday was tonight, and we got to go over and eat the cake Phil made for her and have a great time playing with them. My siblings are the best. Happy Birthday Jenny!

And thus ends the crazy month of February!

Night At The Museum

For FHE tonight, our group went to the Museum of Peoples and Cultures just off BYU campus. I have never been inside the museum before, but I did recall having attended a "block party" several years ago during a summer. I love the memory I have of Hoop dancing, making pottery, exploring several exhibits of ancient pottery and arrowheads that were set up outside. As one who once had aspirations of being an archealogist, anything that sparks of ancient sends my mind soaring on wings of fantasy. I love imagining myself back in ancient times, surrounded by the people whose items are displayed before me.

With that in mind, I began my journey into the museum. It's a smaller museum, but displays well several artifacts and exhibits detailing the lives of select Native American tribes. I saw the Kachinas of the Hopi and the Pueblo, experienced that pottery of the Ramos, and learned more about the beauty found in the expressions of Quetzlcoatl. My mind again took flight and joined those ancient peoples as they lived lives ordinary to themselves, but fascinating to me. What would it have been like, I wonder, to live as they did. I'll never know first hand, but I believe my imagination will give the journey a try tonight in my dreams.

The Lost Arts

On Saturday I went with Sheryl and her family to a storytelling festival being held at BYU. Now, I will admit that at first I was skeptical. Was this going to be a repeat of those days in the elementary school library? Was I going to be read Dr Seuss and Amelia Bedillia? Not say that I did not enjoy those books and still find pleasure in reading them, but I am a little older now. So it was with slight trepidation that I took my seat and waited for the entertaining to being.

WOW! I was completely blown away. This was storytelling as I never experienced it before. Not only were there your more commonplace stories to entertain and teach values, but there were a few that were poignant reminders of those truths in life that we often choose to avoid.

Over the past several days, I've pondered the lost arts, not just of storytelling, but of writing and conversation. Years ago these were the qualities that defined a person's character, giving them dignity and distinction. Now everything is done in electronic format through email, IMing, facebook, etc. Not to say that I don't appreciate these forms of communication. I do. I love that I can quickly and easily communicate with almost anyone, anywhere in the world. But I think something was lost in the transition. The impersonality related to the ease of our present communications has contributed greatly to the decline in people's ability to relate face to face.

Now maybe this is a problem that only I face, but I doubt it. Sometimes I wish for those days when people were schooled in conversation, when letter writing was an art form, and when hearing a story captivated an audience the way movies do today. I would never trade our advances in technology for those of an earlier time. But occassionally I wish that I could spend meaningless days in a stream of busy nothings, concerned only with enjoying the small magical moments that create beauties unseen by this fast paced, modern world.

Carrabba's...The New IT Place For Birthdays

Tonight was Shelly's birthday. Lyd and I decided to take her out to dinner, but as none of us are any kind of decisive it took awhile to figure out where to go. And then it dawned on us, Carrabbas!

Carrabbas has all kinds of food and it's all good. Here Shelly is partaking of a frozen raspberry lemonade. Most delightsome. Drinks, soups, salads, pastas, meat...yummy! I realized tonight that I have been at Carrabbas several times for birthdays in the last little while. And so I decided that it is the new IT place for birthdays.

Yes, as I looked around I realized Carrabbas has everything I want in a birthday restaurant, including some dang good desserts for the birthday person. Perhaps one day they will pay me to advertise for them. Until then, I will just continue enjoying the cuisine :)