The Ending of an Era

For the last year and a half or so, I have had the privilege of serving in the Manti Temple as an ordinance worker. One day, my dad admitted to me that he'd submitted my name to work there. "Like I don't have anything better to do." I retorted. There was a pause as he looked me square in the eye and then replied "No....you don't." It hit me like a slap on the face. It was true. No matter what was going on in my life and how busy I was with work and church callings and life, I still had an obligation and a desire to serve in the temple. Well, what better way that to have an assignment?
When I was called down to visit with the Temple President and was given this special calling, I chose to work on Tuesday Evening so that I could ride down with my dad. There's something about being with my dad one on one. I haven't had a lot of opportunities for that in my life unless I was doing chores with him.
But those days are now past. He announced last night that he's not going to be working on Tuesdays anymore. His farming responsibilities are too demanding and he feels like they need him more on Saturday.
Most days when we'd ride to Manti, the conversations were few and far between. But on the way home...that's when things got exciting. He'd tell me stories about growing up. He'd tell me stories about sheepherding. He'd tell stories of hunting. He'd tell me what had happened to him that day at the temple or stories that someone had told him. He'd tell about people he saw and then tell how he knew them and how he was glad to see them at the temple. He'd tell stories about whatever was on his mind. Usually it was something that had happened that sparked a memory.
Last week he told about going to Ephraim with Oliver as a deacon and going swimming. Then, they'd stop at a small cafe (he pointed out where it used to be) and buy dinner.
"You could buy a hamburger for two bits, fries for 15 cents, and a drink for 10. You were set if you had four bits." He told me.
I asked where he got his money as a teenager.
"Oh, I had my milk money", he replied.
He told about milking the cows. He told about the milk truck from Spring City that would come and pick up the milk and that he would get a check for about $3.00 every week. He told about those people that were Grade A and about his friend Gary who milked for Devon Mikkelsen. He earned a dollar a day, so he got $7.00 a week. Then he told a story about when Devon's bacteria levels in his milk went sky high. He couldn't figure out what was going on, but Gary was there one day when a lady that lived across the street came and dipped her cat's bowl into the tank. She never washed the dish, and that's what was causing the bacteria. He laughed as he remembered.
Sometimes we'd stop and get a hamburger on the way home. He'd always comment on the burger. He likes a good hamburger, you know, and is pretty particular about them.
I'm going to miss those hamburgers.
I'm going to miss his latest query when we were ready to leave, "Well, should we take your outfit?" or "Well, what are we going in? The Mitsubichi?" I always laughed on the inside not only because of the mispronunciation, but because I drive a Toyota.
My trips to Manti will be pretty boring from now on.

Lady Antebellum

Holly texted me last Saturday and said something to the effect of 'Don't you want to get a sub for the temple on Tuesday and go to a Lady Antebellum concert?' After some banter, I was talked into it.
The venue was the Rail Events Center in SLC. It's just one big open room basically, so we had to stand the entire time and get pushed around by little teenage twits. Plus, since Cori's friend said that we had to show up early to stand in line because of the general admission, we arrived several hours before it started and stood then, too. My feet hurt by the end of the night.

Here's Holly waiting for the concert to start. Yay.



I was bored, so we took pictures.



Here are the FG girls. We made quite a nice wall for those who wanted to get to the front. I look short.



The security dude between us and the stage looked an awful like Ryan Hansen...don't you think, Tam?



David Nail opened for them, but I didn't get a good picture of him. But I was totally digging the red piano that they brought with them. Cori had some guy that worked for Lady A that was flirting with her the entire night. I told him after that the pianos sounded good. He said he'd pass that on to Dave. Apparently he tunes them himself. Do you think that could be right?



Here's Lady A as they first came out. We soon found out that they spotlighted their band members very well and that they were fairly entertaining to watch. Especially the electric guitarist with the long braids. Very entertaining.



Dave Heywood turns out to be my favorite because he's so incredibly talented on his instruments. It's got to be more interesting to play something. I'm just sayin'. We soon found out that being way at the front means that you are that much closer to the incredibly loud speakers. I told Holly that even my esophogus was shaking. My ears were still ringing when I got home. Note to self: take ear plugs next time and you'll still be able to hear pretty well.



Charles kept coming over and stepping basically right over the Ryan Hansen security guard to touch everybody's hands. He interacted with the audience well.



My absolute favorite was when they brought the whole band up and did an acoustic number. Braid boy played the dobro. The pianist played the accordian, Lead guitarist played the mandolin and Bass Man played the upright. It was somewhat awesome.



They each took some time to do some solos. Dave rocked Luke Bryan's "I do" playing and singing completely by himself.



Charles sang Bruce Springsteen . Not bad. Not bad at all.



They did four or five encore numbers. Cori's boyfriend told us that they never sing that much. They were having lots of fun. I guess this is their first tour that they've headlined and they're only about 2 1/2 weeks into it. Yeah, I'd be having fun, too!!

kind kleaning kings

Kaye and Kenzie King kame over again today to help me klean up the cabin. Kenzie brought his pressure washer and with a little power and water from my kind neighbor, Bill, we demolished and kleaned to our hearts' kontent.
Kaye and I demolished an existing wall and a couple of random boards on the inside. The inside is now just one big room. We all got turns using the pressure washer. Kenzie and I even klimbed up into the loft and swept out all of the hay and dirt up there.

Kenzie is spraying the inside


Here's a better picture of what the sides look like now, with no foundation.
The door is one that has been stored in the brooder and used to be our kitchen door on our house. I'm hoping that we kan use it for two reasons.
1. There aren't any windows in the place and it will be nice to have that big window in the door.
2. It's free.



I finally kaught a picture of Kenzie at work. I need to get one of Kaye, so you kan see who has been aiding me in my krazy project.

Monster Rap

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Cabin Update

I went to Indiana and Ohio at the last of September for a few days for work. When I came home, there were two walls of my foundation built!

Then last weekend, I went with the girls to St. George / Zions / Bryce Canyon and while I was gone, my cabin got set on said foundation.

Here's a pic that Holly took and sent to me. She took over my supervisor duties.



Then my mom sent me this one



Today, my friends from the temple, the Kings, came to help me replace the back bottom log.
Ross helped for a little while too. I wasn't smart enough to get pictures of the work in progress. Doesn't it look nice?



You can't tell from this picture, the the side foundation walls aren't put in place yet, but Sid's going to come and do that while the weather is still good.



Kenzie had to use two different logs (from the side and from under the old floor) because we didn't have one long enough. You can see here how they fit together. He's going to come back and put some liquid nails or something like that to bind them together. It seems like he knows what he's doing. Good thing, because I sure don't! But hey, having fun!

crazy? I was crazy once.

Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a room. It had one dot on the wall. I counted it every day. One. One. One. I died in that room. They buried me. The grass tickled my nose. It drove me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once...

I have faced the inevitable. I am crazy. I know, I know, you all figured that out a long time ago. I have suspected it for some time now, but have finally decided that it must be true.

I like lists, so here are some of the reasons that I am crazy.

1. I live in my parents' basement. Yep. I'm one of those. It's not great. I do have my own room. But, I'd like to not live in my parents' basement. I am crazy.
2. So, I took measures to change the situation. I bought a piece of land. I'm saving my money. Things are going well, right? (Actually, this isn't a reason that I'm crazy...it just helps me to explain the next reason.)
3. I inherited a cabin and moved said cabin to previously mentioned property. Now, instead of saving money for a house, I'm putting money into my "free project". I am crazy.

But, oh, it's gonna be cool. And really, how many times have you ever seen a house going down the road behind Dean Peckham's truck? Furthermore, what else does the entire town (okay, I am exaggerating somewhat, but we had a pretty good crew of volunteers) have to do on a Saturday afternoon than to help the crazy lady move a house?

Here's how it started when they lifted it up




Eddie Hanson showed off his super-human backing up skills to back the trailer under the cabin.



The door jamb fell out, but otherwise, it stayed together pretty good. They tied it all up and took it to it's new home.



And here it sits. You can see the cement slab where it will go. Because we lost a couple of bottom logs that were rotten, we're going to lay cinder block to set it up on. Should be fun. I may even update you on the progress. But maybe not. I am crazy you know.

random june happenings

June is nearing an end. Here are a few highlights:

Alan at the Cedar Hill

Matchy Matchy Alan squared

Audrey and Wyatt

Mom "teaching" a class at the Panguitch Quilt Walk Festival

We saw a beautiful double rainbow on our way home from Panguitch. I stopped at the reservoir and took a picture.

Another trip to the Cedar Hill where we got rained out!

I met up with my "roomies" from USU. We went to brunch, caught up, laughed a lot, and took SWEET self-portraits!

Princess Ama and me being bored in Wal Mart. We sat on Holly's chairs in the Junior's department and waited for her. We got some strange looks...

Girls Camp! We took the Youth Leaders up the night before and had a blast with them! Katrina Wheeler came and spoke to them and did an excellent job.

My friend, Justin, came up as a special guest speaker on Wednesday night. They loved it! He did a great job.

A highlight of camp was our super cool Moroni ballet water battle.