Little Girls on Loan

I don't have my own daughters so I have to borrow others. My friend Kat is a good sport to let me help with her two daughters. I tend Abbey on Wednesday mornings and occassionally I'll do something with her hair. Two weeks ago she asked Kat to put her hair in pigtails before coming to my house saying she wanted the pigtails in for me. (this is significant because she NEVER wants Kat to do anything with her hair)
I was very pleased. I put each pigtail in a curler and here she is!

A couple times a year I beg Kat to let me 'rag' their hair on Saturday night for church the next day. It was what I wanted to do for my birthday so they came back over that night and we had fun making the girls into mop-tops.



Sorry I don't have any after pictures. They came by to show me but I forgot to take a picture. Take my word they were so adorable.

Birthday Cake!

I made Keri's "Darn Good Chocolate Cake" and had the Nelson and Seager families over for cake and ice cream Saturday night for my birthday. Nick was very animated with his approval of the treat.
Over all it was a super birthday. The Wille's took me to the Old Spagetti Factory for dinner, on Sunday Leona surprised me with a lavendar cake and the Halls came for a visit and totally surprised me with the best gift ever!! Thanks to all who celebrated with me and for all the well wishes!

Mary

Through the wonders of FaceBook I reconnected with a friend from BYU. Mary Len and I were floormates both freshman and sophmore years. We both lived on the 4-floor of T-hall in Deseret Towers. But after we said goodbyes at the end of Sophmore year in 1988 we have never seen or heard from each other. that is until last month on Facebook!

Mary came to Utah this weekend. We were able to get together and get caught up. It was so fun. I loved getting filled in on her life. We told the waitress that this was the first time we had seen or talked to each other in almost 21 years so she pretty much left us alone for 4 hours. Thanks Mary for coming and arranging the get together.

1st photo we took our eyes were closed so for the
re-take we both posed wide-eyed (a little too much)

Cross Country Skiing

My neighbor Kim noticed in the paper that Solider Hollow was discounting the fee to cross country ski for the month of March, until they have to close. Normally $37 for a full day was only $6. Gotta love a deal like that!

Back in Chicago my friends and I went x-country skiing lots, so much I even have my own skis. But that has been over 20 years. I was excited to go out and try x-country again. I also wanted to try the Solider Hollow venue. For those who don't know it is the venue created for x-country skiing for the Olympics.

We went up last Saturday. It was painfully obvious that Illinois is FLAT and Utah is NOT. I struggled since there was a little too much down hill. But I enjoyed learning to maneuver the hills and improving.

Kim's son Sam and the neighbor boy Ben were naturals and I didn't even try to keep up with them. Poor Kim followed the boys and their frantic pace for almost 2 hours. The day was sunny and bright. With the crisp clean mountain air it was just wonderful being outside.All of us ready to go(L to R: Sam, Ben, Kim and Me)


The Olympic torch landmark remains
since it was once an Olympic Venue.

All Shook Up

Last Wednesday night my neighbor, Kim Seager, and I went to dinner at Iggy's and then over to the play "All Shook Up" at the Hale. The play was high energy and really fun. Dinner at Iggy's was yummy but the TVs were a little loud for conversation. Although I'd like to go back and watch a BYU football game on the four 110 inch TVs. Kim and I had a lot of fun.

When Hale Freezes Over

Some people protest that they will run a 5k in January when h*** freezes over. So the name of this race was fitting. In Orem we have an old theater called the Hale Center. For a fund raiser they inaugerated the first annual "When Hale Freezes Over 5k".

After I was registered for the race we had many days that were horrible and I was regretting my registering for the race. We had many days with snowy, slushy and icy roads, cold temperatures and poluted inversions.

Believe me the 24 hours before the race I decided to back out hundreds of time. However I had invited my friend Angela which turned out to be the reason I went over that morning. Her feelings had been the same, we both were hoping the other won't be there and we could go home. But we were there so we ran the race.

Here is everyone before the race. It was a balmy 26 degrees.It might be hard to believe but the weather, roads and race were wonderful. I found out that I like running in the colder weather. The race was really well organized. The route was a little tough because we ran down to 1200 West and then had to run back up the 4th South hill, but even that turned out better than I was dreading.

The participant package was great for the $15 fee. I figured if I even walked it would be worth the entry. All participants got an actually wearable T-shirt and tickets to 2 plays this season. I then won a 2009 deluxe season pass to the theater's 6 plays. When they announced that prize I thought how much I would love to win that, but I didn't hope since I never win drawings. I was elated, I almosted teared up.

Here I am running (in red sweatshirt):And my finish time:The Hale Theater annouced that they are going to do a second race on the hottest day of the year called the "Highway to Hale 5K". Anyone up for a race?...

Chocolate Dipping

My Mother, Carla, and my Grandmother, Menita, were both expert candy makers. Mother spent at least a week making her Christmas chocolates and was well-known for her professional-grade chocolates. I on the other hand was too busy licking spoons and sneaking samples to take learning seriously. Now it is too late.

However for years I've gotten together with my friend Christi Stone, her 3 daughters, some of their cousins and friends to make chocolates. I keep trying to tell them that they know more than I ever did but they insist I have to be there. We got together tonight for FHE and had a great time.

This year we did it at Christi's house and for the first time I enjoyed dipping and not worrying.

Only 3 fingers allowed

Sarah, Christi, Shelly, Sara (not pictured Brooklyn)

The aprons are part of the tradition

YUMMY!