Morning Train to Tuacahn

On Friday we went to Tuacahn, of all places, to see a great 80s popstar: Sheena Easton (pictured). Now, Tuacahn has a summer concert series that all the old peeps buy tickets to. Judging from the audience, (who included six (!) people in front of us who brought their own padded seats), I would say less than half actually had a glimmer of who Sheena Easton was going into the concert.

We feel it necessary to note that Sheena Easton no longer looks like this. Now she looks like this. She's a brassy 49, but the white pantsuit and lacy sheer drapery she came out in made her look at least in her 50s. It was the type of outfit that classy older ladies wear on a formal night on a Carnival Fun Ship. And we could tell – we were on the fourth row!

During her second song, Sheena came out into the audience and started shaking their hands with a “How ya doin'?!” that sounded straight outta Brooklyn, even though she's from Scotland (who knew?). Yes, dear readers, all three of us got to shake Sheena Easton's hand. I had an actual conversation with her, as well. I'll try to reconstruct it as closely as possible: Sheena Easton. “How ya doin?!” Me: “Hi! Good!” The thought actually occurred to me that if I'd known she would be coming into the audience, I would've tried to look nicer.

Bless her heart, she dispensed with the formality of the encore that I loathe so much. She even told us that she COULD go off and have us cheer her back, or she could just stay on stage and do her last numbers. Yes, Sheena Easton doesn't like the encore either. Or, she just wanted to get out of the George as soon as she could once she realized there's no ready alcohol available.

Mother's Day Memories

In honor of Mother's Day, we wanted to share a few things that we love about our Mom:

1.Mom always made holidays special. For Valentine's Day we would draw names for our Secret Pal and for the week before Valentine's Day we would do secret acts of service for our Pal. Easter involved the Easter egg hunt an a basket exchange and for Christmas we loved rotating each day to a different advent calendar. New Year's Eve was spent as a family with kids' committees for decorations, food and games. Mom and Dad always spent lots of family time together with us.
2.During our school years, Mom rotated with neighbors on carpool duty. Mom was not just on time, but made sure she was early so we knew we could count on her. Many times, the other moms would “forget” and after a few minutes of waiting, here would come Mom in the brown van. Also, Mom always volunteered to be our elementary school room mother. She worked hard making Christmas ornaments for the class with their pictures on them. For Halloween one year, Melinda was so excited that Mom was bringing the treats – they were sugar cookies made to look like spiders with licorice for the legs.
3.One of our favorite vacations when we were younger were our camping trips. We would meet together in Family Home Evening and make plans for the summer of where we would go with our big family calendar and then looked forward to the trip coming. We loved planning the menus with Mom, shopping for the food and then loading the trailer. Mom always cooked a hot breakfast and we loved it – especially now when we realize all the dishes and work that was involved in doing that. In our trailer, she would spend time with us playing games and coloring.
4.Mom could sew anything. In the 4th grade when we had an exercise to create our own state, Melinda's design for a flag won and Mom had the privilege of then making it for the great state of Atlantis. And along with camping, Mom made many of the items that we hung in our trailer to make things more convenient – from a hanging mirror to a papertowel holder. She also helped Melinda pass her Jr. High sewing class as Melinda was unable to complete any of the required projects. We all got a nice laugh when she was named seamstress of the year. :)
5.Mom made sure that we had breakfast before school – often a hot breakfast at that. She got up early and made us a meal on our trays at the kitchen counter and spent time talking to us before school.
6.And then after school, we loved having Mom there to come home to and to talk about our day. She often had a treat ready for us as well, whether it was popcorn for Brent or taking Kristen out for some Papa Murphy's cookie dough on the way home.
7.Mom was an excellent singer and our home was always filled with music. She sung in several groups at church, but our favorite was when she and Dad sang together. They sang as they did the dishes together and drove in the car.
8.Birthdays are always special and we still continue to hide our presents and search for them – even though we are all...well, a bit older. This was a brilliant idea . . .it makes it so the birthdays last longer. Often, she would get us out of school and take us to lunch on our special day. She took classes to learn how to decorate cakes and then when it was our birthday we always got to select a special cake – which usually involved buying a new pan. We had homemade parties that were off the charts. No Chuck E. Cheese for us. It may have been an Olympic theme with different events and prizes or a doll party where we decorated our own cakes and each got an apron.
9.Mom always went above and beyond for her church callings. We have all learned from her that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing well.
10.Mom had a great sense of humor. She could always lighten the mood and keep Dad and us laughing. She was sly about it; often people didn't know just how funny she was. One of Kristen's favorites was when she was reciting her locker combination one day. Without missing a beat, Mom responded that “those are my measurements!” And Melinda loved going to Relief Society with her as they would just need to look at each other after an off the wall comment, and they would spend the rest of the lesson giggling.
For these and so many other reasons we love and miss our Mom. On this Mother's Day as well, we want to pay tribute to the other mothers in our lives. We admire the way that Lisa and Lilli are raising their children and it's so fun to see their influence and what great kids they are.

Speaking of Shielding our Eyes...

Along with Julie's post, may I humbly submit a picture of my own - this English gent that we saw at the Tower of London wearing a mid-calf, snug sweatpant. In defense (or "defence" as they would say) of the English, I must say that I don't know what nationality he was. But those pants are wrong in every culture.

My Eyes!

If I were to make a list of my not-so-favorite things, sweat pants would definitely be on them. Today while I was out and about I saw the baggy t-shirt over sweat pants and I will just never understand. Especially guys in sweatpants. The elastic at the bottom of the leg that makes the material pool at the ankle. The elastic waistband, while probably comfortable is not very flattering. The look is just a little loosey-goosey for me (that's a technical term) and I just don't want to see all of that. Don't even get me started on shirts that are tucked into sweatpants with the drawstring pulled tight! I wouldn't mind the pants so much if they just didn't have the elastic at the bottom. What about a nice track pant? That would be much better. Along these same lines are biker shorts. Melinda and I can both recall a time we were at an activity and one of the guys came late and said he had come straight from the gym. We were sitting down when he came in his tight, stretchy bike shorts and had to prance right in front of us. Since he was late already, why not take a few extra minutes and change! No one wants to see that. Unfortunately, it's forever etched in my brain. As Christian Siriano of Project Runway fame would say, "it's a hot mess" for sure! - Julie

And the Answer is...

Brian wins the prize with his guess of 54 pairs of shoes. I actually have 56 pairs. Let me break it down for you:

16 "fancy flats" and kitten heels (or Kristen's kittens, as Lilli likes to call them)

12 high heels

8 cross trainers/casual sneakers

8 sporty shoes

7 sandals

5 boots

Who can top me? Come on, admit it!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but I love birthday week. This was born out of necessity as birthdays became less fun the older I got. Years ago, I started soliciting lunch appointments, and asking who wanted to take me out to celebrate. And boy howdy, have people stepped up! I have the best family and friends who take really good care of me during this glorious week. This was the first year in 3 years that I have been in town on my actual big day, and I had to go to work, which of course, made me melancholy. So to make up for that, my cute family took me to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. The magic of birthday week was evident as we walked right in, which never happens. The last time we were at the Las Vegas Factory, our waiter, Marty, recommended that we try the lemoncello torte instead of a cheesecake. This has become our new favorite, and I had to stop myself from licking the plate. These pictures were taken before I had lemon goodness all over my face.

That weekend, I went to sunny Las Vegas with my friends, Betsy and Brooke. It was a hoot. We stayed at the lovely JW Marriott in Summerlin, and had a dandy time eating good food, shopping at the H&M, sitting at the pool sucking down way too many pina coladas, and visiting our new friend Lamont every day.

After we triumphantly returned from there, I got to have another celebration this weekend. Betsy organized a surprise party for me, and we headed up to another of my favorite restaurants, the Baja Cantina in Park City. All I can say is TJ Taxi. They also have fantastic Dr. Pepper, so it was pretty delightful. Then we went to see the amazing hair that is Patrick Dempsey in Made of Honor. Not the best movie I've ever seen, but certainly good eye candy. And here I am with my present from Betsy--if anyone could just let Mr. Korver know that his wife is at home waiting for him, that would be great.

Thanks to everyone who made my birthday so great. You are all gems! I'll see you next year!

Shoe-Tastic!

Well, here it is 3:00 am, and rather than going to bed, I would instead like to tell you, faithful internet readers, that I counted my shoes today. Yep, I was going through all my clothes today to see what I could give away to the DI. Whilst doing so, I counted the number of shoes I had. I'm not going to lie. It is a lot. But, in fairness, not as many as Imelda Marcos. So here's a quiz - guess how many pairs of shoes you think I have. I have subcategorized them into High Heels, "Fancy" Flats and Kitten Heels, Casual Shoes/Trainers, Sneakers and Sporty Shoes, and Sandals. Bonus points if you can guess which two categories I have the most shoes.