Draper Temple Open House

The day finally came for us to tour the Draper Temple. I had made our reservation in mid-December so it seemed like we had to wait a very long time for this special day.

Each time we drove to Salt Lake this past year or so I would check it's progress with great curiosity. While driving down the freeway at 70+ miles per hour it was difficult to imagine how it would look. For a long time it was yellow making it very difficult for me to visualize.

Today I got to see it up close and in person. It is beautiful just like all the others. This was my first open house and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to show the kids the inside of a temple.

They did this one different from others that I had heard about. They had assigned several Stake Centers as meeting spots so that parking at the temple wouldn't be a problem. Our appointment was for 1:40 in the "red lot" but we arrived almost 20 minutes early and no one seemed to mind. We watched a short movie about temples and the Draper Temple specifically. After that we boarded a shuttle bus that took us up to the temple. From there we went through tents (they were set up in case of bad weather) until we got to the temple entrance.

Once inside we just wound our way through the temple. It was a silent tour but there were signs up to tell what rooms were what. It started off with the baptismal font that was very impressive. From there the kids had a bit of a hard time because it was very slow going. It was way crowded and hard to keep them interested while we were in hallways or on stair cases. It was also very warm in some spots making you want to just sit on a sofa and take a nap. They kept asking when they would get to the chandelier room. Once we got to the Celestial Room they perked up a bit. The chandelier was amazing. From there we went to a sealing room where they were able to look into the mirrors symbolizing eternity. After that we made our way out of the temple and into another church building for cookies and little bitty bottled waters.

We enjoyed plenty of cookies before going out to take some pictures. We couldn't have picked a worse time of day for photos. After that we went back and waited for what seemed like eternity (Yes, that pun was intended) for our bus. We felt like we would never get off the mountain. We were in line for more than 20 minutes. It was miserable. The worse part was the green buses and blue buses were coming one right after the other but there wasn't a running red bus to be seen.

Finally we were rescued and got back to our car at 4:15!!! After we got some food we were able to have a discussion with the kids about what we had seen. Bless their hearts they said they really liked the tour. During it they were asking when we would be done! We still haven't decided if we are going to try to go the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It is very close to being finished. If we do it will have to be on a week day.

Slowly but Surely

I will get caught up. I have had a chance to work on week two since I didn't want to leave the house and frighten young children. My eyes are doing 100% better. I think I look normal again but my skin still isn't quite right. It is still rough and bumpy but way less itchy.

Please Laugh *With* Me

I wanted to find a picture of Will Smith from Hitch and use that as my picture. (Do you remember his allergic reaction to something when he goes to dinner and his whole face swells up?) I couldn't get a good one off of Google Images though so I used my own.

The top picture is a regular picture that I have cut my eyes out of. The middle picture is when I got up this morning. I'm shiny because I slept with vitamin E goop on my face hoping it would help me heal quicker. It is a lot better than yesterday morning but still not good. The last picture was last night. As the day goes on the swelling goes down a bit. It seems like the tiny rash (sort of like baby acne) has started to fade.

To answer some questions. I have wanted to try some kind of allergy medicated but haven't. We don't have Benadryl in the house so I have not been taking it. We have an upper-respiratory antihistamine that I tried but it obviously didn't help. I don't want to go out like this LOL and I always forget to ask Paul to pick it up.

I will not stop wearing make-up. Ever. I like it too much. I'm a girly girl and love playing with the colors and deffinately prefer how I look when I do wear it.

So there you go. This is what is going on in my world right now.

Laundry

It is the bane of my existence. It is the chore I find the most tedious. There are too many steps. Let's be honest, I usually don't make it through all the steps. I stop after wash and dry. I think it is from working retail for so many years. I would stand for hours folding clothes and now I am D-O-N-E, done. I only fold and put away clothes after a few days of running down two flights of stairs to the cold garage for underwear. Due to my anal-ness I make it harder than it should be.

I don't like to put a lot of things in the dryer. The dryer fades and shrinks clothing making them look old and worn. I like things that look new. I will put stuff in for 10 minutes to fluff and then it air dries the rest of the time. See? Anal.

I also hate washing jeans during the day because I know the kids will come home with dirty jeans and then I am not really done anymore. I have been missing some jeans since we went to Zion's so I had been holding out on doing that load.

Today I sent Andrew to school in sweats (we have a lot of clothes so it takes a long time to get to this point) so I knew it was time to get serious and find the jeans. They were in the garage, in a plastic bag. We put them there after our hike so they wouldn't get red mud all over the black interior of our car. I thought I had located all the bags with clothes in them but apparently not. I think this means it is time to organize the garage again.

I threw the muddy jeans in, as is, on hot, and hoped for the best. If all goes well tomorrow both kids will be able to wear clean jeans to school. Am I super mom or what?

Still Having Reactions

Today isn't much better. I started getting more of a rash around my face last night, it itches like crazy and there is a pretty significant amount of swelling around my eyes again. I think I am convinced it is a latex allergy and not the make-up. Fun stuff I'm telling you. Wish me luck that this will heal up soon or I might have to scratch my eye-balls out.

Allergic Reaction

THERE WILL BE NO PICTURE!

Last Thursday I used some crazy eye shadow colors and new make-up sponges. The sponges were not latex free. Friday morning I woke up with my eyelids so swollen the tops were hanging over the bottom of the lid. They deflated pretty quick but were still itchy and dry for a couple of days. I didn't wear any eye make-up all weekend long.

Yesterday I only put foundation on my lids when I went out with Paul but I used the new sponges. (I was convinced it was the shadow since nothing else on my face had reacted badly) There was also some crying yesterday, that makes my eyes puffy the next day but this goes beyond any crying puff.

My eyes are swollen from my brows to my cheek bones. The whole area is puffy. Very attractive! I am going to work today and boy am I excited to face the world. I have now set myself back several days. I will not be wearing make-up for a while and when I do I will not be using the new sponges. I hope that does it because this sucks. It is very uncomfortable.

It almost hit 60 degrees today!

This is what it looked like from our deck tonight while Paul was grilling.

I think blogging may be a winter sport. With the weather being nicer I am already starting to slack. Only time will tell if I will have to do another re-cap come autumn.

The sky is bluish gray and there are clouds but it hasn't rained and it almost hit 60 degrees! I am in heaven. I met Paul for lunch to pick out a suit for the wedding. It felt great zipping around town with the windows down in his car. Normally I don't enjoy such things. I even opened windows in the house for the first time in forever. I went and got hamburgers and buns so that Paul could grill for us tonight. Look at the carnage. Yum!

You should have seen Andrew's face light up when he found out what we were having for dinner. The best part? The kids are all outside playing. What more could I ask for?

Last week I finally broke down and bought some stuff for my Project 365. Weeds and Wildflowers Design has been taunting me with emails since the beginning of the year. Their stuff is *so* not my typical linear, symmetrical, clean style but I adore it. I wasn't sure if I could break out of my box and make it work for me but I decided I would give it a try. I am slowly re-doing my January pages after the kids are in bed. I am still not 100% sure how I feel about the first week. (That is all I have done so far) I love the style when I see others use it, but for me, I over think everything too much. I also think I journal too much but I can't help that.

My favorite part of their kit is the monthly calendar review page. That is what really pushed my right over the edge to buy the kit and some accessories. I had to have it. I just got January's all put together today. It took a little bit of time but for February and the months to come I am just plugging in the pictures right after I blog them. It is so easy and I LOVE the outcome. I want the month to hurry up and finish so I can start a new one! I have been neglecting the weekly pages for the calendar pages but that is very typical of me. Wanna see? I think it is so cool.

Something to Look Forward to

Paul's boss is getting married in March and we get to go! It will be a great weekend getaway for us!! It is in California,Yeah!!! In Newport Beach, on a yacht Double Yeah!!!!

I am flying in on a Thursday night (Paul goes in a day early to do some work down there) and then on Friday he and I get to go to Disneyland for the day, alone, without kids. (We love annual passes) It's going to be weird. I think he has committed to taking me to Blue Bayou and since we won't have the kids I am going to try to wait it out and actually see Fantasmic this time.

Saturday we will be doing the wedding and the cruise then going to Frank's house where he is having authentic Mexican food catered for dinner. I have gotten two new dresses, I think I know which one I am going to wear and plan on getting shoes, a purse and some fun jewelry.

Can you tell I am excited?

Photo Overload

I know this is too many picture but I am so in love with this little quilt. Wednesday I picked this up from the quilters. I should have taken a picture before I trimmed it up. Thursday I cut my binding, sewed it together, sewed it on and hand stitched the biding to the back.

Here is a close up of one of the flowers that was quilted into it.
And another.



It is done. Start to finish. Complete. I am so thrilled with everything about it.

A Glimmer of Hope

Carpet dude has come and put down the pad. He is off getting the carpet right now as I type. Maybe by tonight, if all the stars align, I will have all the piles of bedroom stuff, and closet stuff, and furniture and bedding out of my living room and this will all be a distant nightmare, I mean memory.

A Debacle of Epic Proportions

That describes our week.

Over President’s Day weekend in 2007 we went to Moab and Arches National Park. We were afraid there wouldn’t be enough to do so we only went for one night. It turned out to be great. The weather was perfect, there were plenty of things at the kids’ skill level and the town was cute with good restaurants and a grocery store. We wished we could stay longer. Since we don’t function well in heat we waited until the same time the following year and stayed longer. It was still great but it much colder and there was snow on the ground making hiking a little more difficult. We were however able to get to Delicate Arch and felt like we had done all there was to do, within our athletic capabilities.

Last June I decided we should go to Zion’s in 2009 so I booked the hotel for President’s weekend. It was at that point that I realized that Valentine’s was the same weekend. We made a choice as a family that we would celebrate Valentine’s on Friday the 13th and then head out Saturday after we got up.

Let me explain a little about our week leading up to our holiday and our trip. We were supposed to get carpet on Thursday or Friday. I was hoping for Thursday but said I could manage Friday as long as it was in the morning so our house could get back to normal for the holiday. Due to not knowing when they were coming I couldn’t help out with either class party. We started moving things out on Wednesday in preparation, which resulted in our house being a total disaster. We got a call saying that the carpet wouldn’t be coming in until Friday.

Paul took Friday off so that we could rip everything out in the morning insuring we wouldn’t be walking around on sub-floor during our midnight potty breaks. Well Friday morning rolls around and we find out at 9:30 a.m. that the truck was late so we would not be getting carpet until later. We didn’t know when later was so Paul stayed at home. Knowing that we were celebrating Valentine’s that day, the last thing I wanted was strangers in our house while we were enjoying our traditions. By the afternoon I was getting a little anxious and Paul was downright bored.

The weather had been great for a couple of weeks and then right before we were set to go the storms started rolling in. One right after the other! We watched the weather each day that week and decided we were going to go for it. Once Friday rolled around and all they can talk about on the news is the big storm that is due to hit Saturday. Thursday night there was a 22-car pileup outside of Beaver so we were a little worried to say the least. Paul looked online and found us a room in St. George for Friday night. We couldn’t decide if we were going to leave until the very last minute.

I had gone all out to get everything ready for the kids when they got home from school on Friday. The table looked great and everything was ready to go. I had baked a poppy seed cake, mixed up cookie dough and made red jell-o. Paul had my favorite roses delivered (4 red, 4 pink and 4 whites) and had gotten Emma a dozen pink roses. This is a tradition he started a few years ago. He wanted to be the first guy to ever give her roses. She loved it so much he has done it ever since. I had their little gifts wrapped and the Valentine’s all filled out. We were set.

Since Paul was still home we were debating on whether we should wait for dinnertime or just do everything right after the kids got home. Since we were leaning towards leaving for St.George we decided to just get the show on the road.

We rushed through our pizza dinner, did without the homemade breadsticks and chocolate dipped strawberries I was going to make and then went into turbo packing mode. I forgot to get a picture of me with my roses because we were hurrying so much. At this point we get the call that we can have someone come to put in the carpet at 5:00 p.m. Good grief! No, come on Tuesday, we’ll wait.

We rush rush rushed, got the car packed, left a key with Maggie so she could take care of Marius and we hit the road right at 6:00 p.m. While it was cold, windy and we did hit a few pockets of snow on the way, we were glad we left Friday and missed the storm that hit Saturday. We made one stop in Beaver where Emma ran into one of her classmates! We got to our hotel at 10:00 pm. and went to bed after hanging out in the room for a little while.

We woke up to crystal blue skies and puffy white clouds. It was marvelous. The kids got to swim and play in the hot tub after breakfast.

We hit the outlets and Old Navy before getting lunch at In –N-Out for Paul and I and Jack in the Box for the kids. It was sooo freaking crowded at In-N-Out that we got it to go and ate in our car.

There were these little beggars that wanted our fries.

We did a little more shopping and then went on our way to our hotel in Zion’s.

We got to our hotel where we checked in and unloaded. We got back in the car and hit the park. We drove on one of the scenic drives that runs through a mile long tunnel. There is no need to try and hold your breath in a mile long tunnel! Unfortunately there was so much snow that we were unable to see some of what Zion’s in known for. We did see many beautiful things though.

We then went on the other scenic drive and plotted our plan of attack for the next day since we were losing light and it was too cold to do much of anything at that time.

I called this the Dr. Suess mountain.

We saw a bunch of deer on our way back out. We saw so many deer on this trip we couldn't even keep track. They were everywhere.

We got dinner and that is when we realized that they had us, big time. There is nowhere to go for food besides the little town and the food was very expensive. They could charge whatever they wanted because there were no other options for people staying there.

We went back to our room where we entertained ourselves (This is not normal behavior for us)

before going to the hot tub. The kids were tired of waiting for us to be ready (we had just eaten our dinner) and I had noticed that the beds were pretty springy and well one thing led to another and yes we jumped on the beds. There were two couples when we got out to the hot tub and interestingly they both left within minutes of us getting there with the kids. The kids weren’t even being bad.

We got up and Paul and I made an executive decision. We were worried about driving home in bad weather on Monday, we didn't want to pay for anymore over priced food and we knew it was too cold and snowy to really enjoy the park. We checked out of the hotel a day early. We found a little place to have breakfast, a modest breakfast, and it cost our little family $50. We had had enough. We decided to do one hike and leave for home.

The hike was not hard but we were challenged by mud, snow and ice. Ice was on the ground and falling on us from the trees. Hiking when it is 32 degrees = bad. I had to get out my cashmere sweater that I had just bought in St.George as an added layer since I didn’t pack enough layers. (Hey, we were rushed!)

We persevered and got to our first destination. Oooh. Pretty. Here we are behind a water fall. Just a little ways down the path is all ice. We had to hold on the the rail and slide down.The rail was freezing!

Another shot from behind the fall. See how everything is frozen? When I say it was cold I was serious.

Never one to turn down a challenge, we decided to go the long way back to avoid a decent back down the icy mountain, probably on our butts. Note to self, hiking in the winter can be a challenge. We were assured that it was better to brave the mud instead of the ice. We hit mud. Lots and lots of thick, goopy, pull the shoe off your foot kind of mud. Keep in mind I did this in cashmere. Am I a trooper or what?

The view from the side of the mountain AKA the trail.

We saw more deer.

Once we got to the car we had to remove our shoes and pants so we could get on clean clothes. (luckily we took the plastic dry cleaning bags from our rooms so we could put our dirty stuff in there) By this time we were all ready to get out of there. We were not willing to hike anymore.

On our way out of town we stopped at some animal preserve where we were able to feed elk and some big cow type thing. Paul said it was a Brahma Bull but I am not convinced. It was very sweet though what ever it was. I also saw buffalo for the first time in my life. We said goodbye to Springdale, probably forever, and headed for home.

This is one big, rubbery, snotty nose. It totally slimed me! We stopped at a gas station so I could wash the snot off.

On the way home we did one more scenic drive through Kolob Canyon where there was a lot more snow and that was it for our trip. We still got our two days away from home. They were just different days than we had planned. We really enjoyed ourselves even though the trip was not what we expected. We are grateful that we can see the beauties that have been created for us to enjoy and that we can build these memories as a family.