christmas cards

I haven't actually written my own Christmas card, but I took pictures of Ross and Chavonne and their children at Thanksgiving time and just designed a Christmas card for them. I thought it turned out kinda cute. Just pretend that it's a Christmas greeting from yours truly because at the rate I'm going, I'm probably not going to get to mine...

it was the worst of times, it was the best of times...

I know. You're thinking that I'm incorrectly quoting Dickens. It's true. BUT, I'm quoting it incorrectly because of how Friday played out.

True story: I woke up at a pretty good hour. When I wake up too early, I sometimes roll over and go back to sleep. Friday was not one of those days. I woke up when my body was rested. The problem was, I didn't have any desire to get out of bed. Why? At the time, I didn't know...what...lie...ahead.

10:00 a.m. Holly, Tammy, Karla and Bonnie had singing practice. No problem. I had Holly drive me down since my car needs repair and we sang to our hearts' content. The day was going...well. Other than the fact that it's supposed to be a "singing" group and I don't end up singing very often.

12:00 p.m. Holly brought me home from singing practice. I got inside my car to bring in my gear from the night before. Holly asked me if I wanted my guitar at my house or if she should take it with her. I said she could leave it here if she wanted. I headed inside the house. My dad asked, "Where's the wild bunch going?" So, I turned to check if Holly and crew were coming inside. I looked through the window just in time to see Holly backing out and my guitar falling down by the side of the car. I think I gasped. I know I must've had a terrible look on my face as I watched her back right over my guitar.

Bonnie: "She just ran over my guitar!" she said as she fled from the house.
Mom: "She just ran over your car?"

Maybe I should learn to talk without mumbling....ya think?
Well, needless to say...it was a very sad day for Bonnie.



You can see the tire marks if you look really closely




It looked like it didn't get hurt, but upon further inspection...well, it's smashed pretty good.

Almost exactly 12 hours later, though, Bonnie's spirits had lifted enormously. Our volleyball team, The Chevelles, took first place in the Juab Rec Volleyball Tournament. We were awarded with hoodies and praise. Well, not so much praise, but at least I had a jacket to keep me warm on the way home, eh?



The Chevelles:
Jenny Bailey, Emily Lovell, Chavonne Bailey, Bonnie Bailey, Lauren Nielson, Nikki Grider
Felicia Thomson, Holly Oldroyd

It's not a good idea for me to live in Texas

More adventures with Holly:

We attended International Quilt Market in Houston last week. We took off on Wednesday night after volleyball, flew out Thursday morning and came home Tuesday morning...WAY too early.

After arrival, we set up our cute little booth in the huge conference center. On Friday, we didn't really have any plans.

Holly: "So, what is there to do in Houston? Is it famous for anything?"

Bonnie: "Well, NASA...you know something, that actually makes sense now why there was an astronaut cow at the airport."

Holly: "Oh, we are so smart that we are just connecting those two things."

We actually did end up driving by NASA, but it was at night and we weren't exactly sure what we were supposed to see.










We basically were just being dragged around by our chauffeur, Konda, who always eventually got us where we needed to go and didn't even get us killed. But oh, the poor car. So many curbs. Who knew you could buy touch up paint at the car dealership?


We also visited the Museum of Natural Science. It was great! I guess. I forgot to get pictures, so you'll just have to imagine it.

My missionary buddy, Patricia Pizano, picked me up on Sunday and we attended some random Spanish ward's sacrament meeting. They had their Primary program and it was AWESOME!

When I was leaving the chapel, I saw a pair of sister missionaries. "That girl could be Steve and Dorothy Johnson's daughter." I checked her tag "Hermana Johnson".
"Excuse me, are you from Manti?"
"Wait are you Bonnie?"
Of course, I couldn't remember her first name...it is Karen I found out. She's my second cousin. Crazy stuff - the world is so small.

Other adventures: We experienced Texas BBQ for the first time (notice the Idaho potatoes in the background)

and drove by the Houston temple. It was Monday night so the gates were shut. It took the picture through the bars of the gate...

Most of our time, however was spent sitting in a booth, like a veal. Oh, and breaking out into song whenever the name of a Texas city was mentioned.

"Houston, Houston means that I'm one day closer to you..."
"Galveston, oh Galveston..."
"By the way, if this is Austin, I still love you."
"Amarillo by morning, up from San Antone."

Yeah, well you get the picture. I can't ever live there. My life is too much like a musical as it is.

holly, holly, HOLLY!!!

This is long overdue:

Holly and I went to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II on a Thursday night. Thursday night? you might ask. Yeah, well, you'll discover soon that it was inspired.

Holly had driven, so she stopped at Maverik there in Ephraim to get gas. Holly got out to pump the gas just as somebody pulled up on the opposite side of the pump in an SVU with a trailer behind. Holly's comment: "Hee Hee - That guy totally just pulled up to the wrong side of the pump, his gas tank's not on this side." My thought: "The driver kind of looks like Craig Miner." I turned to talk to Holly to tell her my random thought. "Hey Holly! Holly!" When I turned to look at her, I saw a reflection in the SUV window of a bald head. "That could have been Craig Miner and THAT bald head could belong to Ryan Shupe." "Holly! Holly! Holl..." Just then one of the guys looked over at me with a strange expression of curiousness on his face. It WAS Craig Miner! "Hi Craig!" I waved. He waved back hesitantly with that same expression. Ryan Shupe stepped out from behind the trailer and waved a big huge flapping arms kind of wave. "Hi Ryan!" Holly: "Oh hi! I was wondering why Bonnie was yelling "Holly, Holly!" at me!" They took off toward the Maverik entrance together.

Holly got in the car and pulled into a parking spot close to the entrance. "Certainly we have a reason to go in, don't we? Don't we need a snack or something?" *Note: it was 10:30 p.m. by this time. She talked me into going in the store, telling me this was my only chance to meet Craig Miner - maybe ever! I suddenly felt like the greasy ponytail and the comfy clothes I threw on weren't going to make much of an impression. We walked to the back of the store where Ryan was getting frozen yogurt as tall as he wanted. Craig was nowhere to be seen. Holly decided that she needed to go to the bathroom. She waited at the door while I aimlessly wandered the aisles looking at nothing in particular. Holly told me later that Craig had been in the bathroom and she had a conversation about frozen yogurt with Ryan as she waited. Craig emerged back into the store, grabbed something to buy and I was just standing there looking like I was some sort of stalker. "Where ya headed?" I blurted when he came around the corner. "Just home...Provo." he replied. "Oh, cool!" I stammered. He took his purchases to the front counter and paid for them and was gone.

All in all it was exciting - but since the experience we have thought of many other approaches to meeting him that might have been better received. "Can I get your autograph?" or "Can we get a picture with you to document this momentous occassion?" Needless to say I have no proof but a witness named Holly.

I've had a crush on Craig for 5 odd years - you'd think that I would have handled my first encounter with him a little better. Well, I did have enough sense to get a picture with Holly's phone as we were leaving Maverik. You can tell it's a SUV and a trailer and if you look really closely you can see somebody washing the windshield. Hey - that's proof enough for me!

P.S. If any of you have ideas for how to arrange a redo of that night...please let me know.
http://www.shupe.net/

whoops, i did it again

Was this really my idea? It's SO short! But I'm the one who insisted on 10 inches so that I could donate it. Well, hopefully someone will enjoy my long hair, 'cause I'm sure not going to anymore. It will grow back right?

um, maybe i should throw these pants away

I bought a few new clothes for my Nauvoo trip - one being a new pair of capris. They're awfully cute. But, when my phone was "baptized" because it fell out of the pocket of said capris, I wondered if the cuteness was really worth it. See, there isn't much of a lip on the pocket, not enough to hold the phone in. Needless to say, I had to hook up my old phone.

Last week, I couldn't find my phone when I got up in the morning.

"Where could it be. I've looked everywhere! The last time I remembered having it was when we were taking pictures of the.....uh oh, I was wearing those same pants." I found the phone on Bishop's lawn (whew!).

"Hmm, it looks like it has water spots on it. I wonder why, it didn't rain. Oh.....sprinkling system. Great."

I got a new phone - well an old phone that's new to me. It's super. And I think when I wear those pants I'll put my phone in my bra.

grandma's trip to nauvoo - that she missed...

My Grandma has always wanted to go to Nauvoo. When she had some friends that were planning a trip there, she wanted in on the fun. But...she didn't want to go it alone. So, I was nominated, much to my pleasure, because it's easy for me to get off of work (I just ask myself for the day off and grant it...to myself). A few weeks before the long-awaited trip, my Grandma wasn't feeling well. She decided to wait to see if she'd get better, but she didn't. She decided not to go, but her trip was already paid for...so she suggested that I take a friend with me. Now, you must remember that #1 I have a lot of friends #2 But, most of them are married with families and #3 I'm terrible at keeping in contact with them. So, since I had to act quickly, I asked one of the Laurels from my Young Women class to accompany me. She was thrilled because her Grandma is on a mission there.

May I just say that we had a fantastic time. It was a planned tour with tour hosts and everything. We were by far the youngest "trouble makers" (that was our dubbed nicknames from the other tour-goers which we took very seriously in fulfilling) on the tour. The only other two tour members under the ages of 50 had parental supervision. Thus the "trouble maker" status.

I was faithful in taking notes at every site that we visited. Now, I have to try to make sense of them all.

We flew into Kansas City on July 29 and visited Independence and Liberty that day. On Wednesday we went to Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman. It was amazing! Then we drove across the state of Missouri and I got my first glimpse of the Mississippi River. We stayed in Nauvoo for the rest of the trip. We visited Carthage on Friday and came home on Saturday flying from St. Louis. I wish I would've had more time at some of the sites. It truly was an experience I'll never forget.

young women camp

Things are a little different at girls' camp than when I was a youth. It seems a little easier on the girls.

I participated in the overnight hike on Monday. All I had to pack with me was a lunch and some water. We went on a fairly lengthy hike (for me) but by 2:30 we were in camp and everything had been trucked in to us to set up camp. We set up our tent and proceeded up the road to a (gasp!) bathroom. Well, at least it was a toilet. No running water was available, so I guess to some that's roughing it. We went canoeing...something that definitely wasn't on our list of activities over a decade ago. We still had to cook our own food...

My favorite quote of Girls' Camp came from my tent partner, Erika. I brought a blue cooler with all my food in it (well, Bishop Eddie did in his truck) When camp was all set up, I sat in my camp chair and put my feet up on my cooler. Erika got our her cooler and lo and behold! she had the EXACT same cooler as me. Same color and everything. My comment was "Oh, you brought your Ottoman too?" She looked at me, looked inquisitively at her cooler and said, "No...mine's a Coleman." I thought Melba Jacobson was going to fall off her camp chair she was laughing so hard.

All in all it was a good camp...and you know what...now that I'm a leader, I'm not too sad that things are a little easier at girls' camp - that mean's they're easier for me too...

bonnie the blogger

I was dropping my chalk and eraser through the hole in the library door after teaching my class when I looked up and saw a blast from the past! My best friend from years gone by was standing there. I have kept in such great touch with her that I didn't even know that she'd given birth to the baby boy that was in her arms. Though we didn't have much time to catch up, she got my email address and sent me her blog address. I had so much fun reading it, that I thought I'd start one of my own. I may even add a blog or two now and then. So here goes!!!