hairyshoefairy

My sister, Teeny, and I are ten years apart in age.  She graduated high school this year which means I graduated ten years ago.  The idea that she is done with school really tripped me out for a while.  I’m slowly adjusting but it’s still weirds me out when I think too much about it.

Anyway, seeing as how I graduated ten years ago my class had its ten year high school reunion this year.  They had a five year as well but we had just moved to California the month before and weren’t about to go back for the reunion especially since everyone was still basically doing the same things we were.  Most people were married possibly with a kid or two and almost everyone was still going to school.  Nothing new.  Ten years later is bit more removed, I was at least in the same state, and this time I was excited to see where people were and what they were doing.  Some people I hadn’t seen since graduation ten years before!

They had two activities for the reunion.  One was a picnic at a park for families and the other was a nice dinner at a restaurant I like which was for adults only.  I get the idea of having two things - one that’s more casual where you can meet everyone’s kids and they can run around, then later you can actually talk to each other at the adults only dinner without being interrupted eight thousand times by drink requests/potty requests/owie reports.  ODD’s class did it, too, and I had the same problem with it.  Here’s my thing: Many people only go to one or the other - not both.  ODD and I did.  So if you only go to the one you miss everyone else that only went to the other and isn’t it all about seeing everyone you went to high school with?  I didn’t plan it so maybe I shouldn’t criticize, but that’s my not-so-humble opinion.  Sorry, mini-rant over.

Anyway, we went to the dinner and met up with one of my best friends from high school, Lacey.  Lacey and I became friends in seventh grade.  I think we had music together but we mostly got to know each other during lunch.  We had the same bunch of friends which was oh-so-originally called “The Group.”  When we made plans and referred to The Group we knew exactly the people we were talking about.  The Group kind of fell apart a couple of years later when some of the guys started making some, uh, not-so-great choices, but the girls mostly stuck together until tenth grade when we kind of went our separate ways and pursued different interests.  The only girl from The Group I stayed close to was Lacey.

We had many of the same interests and standards and were usually involved in the same things.  We each made other friends as well but we still stayed close.  We shared a locker all through high school and went to basketball or football games together.  My mom made us prom dresses (hers our junior year and mine our senior year) out of the same pattern and material but different colors and we wore them to the opera together.  I’m sure I have a picture of us looking sort of matchy-matchy somewhere but I can’t find it.  Our senior year we were both in the smaller chamber choir and still shared a lot of the same friends.  We had sleepovers and usually spent most of the night laughing about goofy things.

After high school we continued to stay in touch.  We both got involved in different things in college so we didn’t talk a lot but every time we did it was like we’d never been apart.  We were always on the same wavelength, understanding each other completely even with something as little as a glance.  It has been determined we both lack some common sense and therefore do some dumb things but we are usually in whatever it is together so it’s okay.

When I got married Lacey was preparing to serve a mission.  One night we went to the temple together and sat in the Celestial room after the session for a couple of hours talking until the temple closed.  When she turned in her mission papers she gave the soonest available date as the day after my wedding because she wanted to be there for it.  She didn’t end up leaving until a few weeks after that and I was happy she was able to be there when ODD were sealed in the temple.  A couple of years later after she returned from serving a mission she and I took a road trip to the Grand Canyon to pick up my brother, Fuffy, who was working at Jacob Lake.  Lacey had worked there a few years before and was happy to go with me.  We pitched a tent together and everything.  It was rather hilarious.

Not long after that she met her sweet husband, Steve, who is the nicest guy ever and such a perfect fit for Lacey.  ODD and I were able to attend their wedding just before we moved to California.  We’ve been able to get together here and there over the years and I used to call her when I was out walking to the bank or the grocery store in CA.  No matter how much time went by we always picked right back up where we left off like no time had passed.  Now we keep up with each other on our blogs.  Hers is one of the only two private blogs I check frequently and I love seeing what she and her family are doing.  She is still one of my favorite people ever and I love that we got to play at the reunion.

After talking to a few other friends at the reunion dinner we chose a table and spent almost the entire time laughing with each other and the other friends seated with us.  Do you like Steve sneaking a goofy face in behind us?

After the dinner was over we continued to chatter as the servers began cleaning up.

Just before heading out the door we snapped one more picture of the two of us for old time’s sake.

As Lacey wrote in her post about the reunion, it’s nice to know some things never change.

At the end of my Junior year of high school I was called to be part of the seminary council for the upcoming year.

For those who don’t know, Seminary, in my church, is religious class offered throughout the school year to high school students.  Each year covers a different book a scripture.  In areas without many church members the class is usually taught early in the morning before school.  In such cases it’s usually taught at a church or a house.  In Utah, where I grew up, there are so many church members classes are offered throughout the day at a dedicated building near the school.  When students schedule their school classes they can include a period of “release time” during which they are released from school and can attend their religion class.

In places where seminary is offered throughout the day there is often, though not always, a seminary council.  They are usually Seniors, called through their stake authorities and are assigned specific specialties.  For example, I was over devotionals.  For any seminary meeting, program, or activity I was in charge of arranging the opening prayer, song, thought, and/or scripture, and, later, the closing song and prayer.  Some people are in charge of finding and coordinating service opportunities, some are over the audiovisual side of things, and the list goes on.  There were 17 people on the council with me (if I’m counting correctly - a big if) and we each had a specialized job but, in addition to that, our main goal as a council was to bring souls to Christ.  We encouraged seminary attendance, planned good activities students could go to, and, in general, tried to be good examples.

Our council had a meeting every week during which we discussed any needs we were aware of, planned activities, and were taught by an advisor.  I grew a lot during that year and was stretched to become a better person.  I formed lasting friendships with many other members of the council.  We worked together all the time and, though we had some minor ups and downs, they became some of my favorite people.  After graduation I would occasionally see a few of them here or there but over the years we’ve all moved around and drifted apart, only occasionally reconnecting through email or facebook.

Just a few days after my high school reunion was announced I got an email from our seminary council president and vice-president.  Since so many people would be around for the high school reunion they thought it would be the perfect time for a seminary council reunion as well.  It was set for lunchtime of the day of our high school reunion.

ODD was almost as excited as I was to go because he had been on the seminary council the year before and was friends with many of the people on my council.  A few people were out of state and couldn’t make it back but over half of our council was able to come.  We had fun meeting everyone’s spouse and family and played a couple of games.  One game was to help us find out what everyone had been doing in the last ten years.  The other game was sort of a jeopardy game to see what everyone could remember about our year on council.  We had a good laugh remembering some of the funny things we did and it was easy to remember why I loved these people so much.

Our advisor, Bro. (that’s what everyone called him), had recently moved back to the area and he brought his big, wonderful family.  Right after I graduated Bro. had moved to Virginia.  The May before ODD and I moved to California we went to visit him.  He had been both ODD’s and my advisor and we both knew him well.  Since he lived fairly close to Washington D.C. we saw a lot of great things on that trip as well as great people.  We happened to visit him just in time because a few months later, as we were moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he was moving to California as well, just a few hours away from us.  Our first year in California we spent Thanksgiving with them.  Later the next year Bro. and his wife came to our apartment and we babysat their youngest son while they did a few temple sessions and stayed in the city for their anniversary.  Last year they moved back to Utah and are hopefully here to stay.  They are some of the best people I’ve ever known.  They live life the best they can, rely on the Lord for strength, and are always inspiring to talk to.  Near the end of our party Bro. shared some thoughts and his testimony with us and it was touching to hear him speak again.  I’ve missed his daily positive influence over the last decade.  He always reminds me I can be better and that Heavenly Father will help me.  I already know this but it’s nice to have a constant reminder.

Before the party broke up we took a group picture (one family left before we took it) and had a little scare with Wingnut who had wandered away to the other side of the house.  He was obliviously playing in the dirt while everyone ran around searching for him.  As soon as we realized he was missing everyone stopped what they were doing and began looking with us.  Though it was a scary moment, especially for ODD and me, it was nice to see how quickly everyone jumped in to help.  These wonderful friends of mine have always been like that and it was touching to see they hadn’t changed in that aspect.  Always ready to serve.

No Empty Seats!

Last week while my parents were in town for my dad’s concert we got together with some friends for a water day.  We had so much fun a couple of years ago and tried to get one together last year but for various reasons it just didn’t happen.  I’m so happy we were able to work one out this summer.

Peanut and Little A have played quite a bit since last time so they aren’t shy with each other anymore.  In fact, when they saw each other they ran to each other for a big hug.  It was really sweet.  They’re such sweet friends.  Grown-up A (I was going to call her Big A but that didn’t really sound nice especially since she in NO WAY has a big A) and I grew up being friends and so did both of our parents.  It’s kind of nice to see the friendship carrying on to the next generation.

We had a fun lunch and watched the kids play in the water and run all over the yard.  Apparently the little girls found a decaying rat carcass somewhere in the yard and took great delight in squealing about it.  Grown-up A’s brother’s little boy, H, was over, too, and he and Wingnut had fun watching the girls act crazy.

Dancing and being goofy.

Just for the record, I believe Peanut gets her dancing skillz from her father.  I think it’s the elbows.

H and Little A loved going down the slip and slide.

Peanut would only run down.

I didn’t even try with Wingnut.  He was not a fan of the cold water and preferred to wander around in his swim diaper pilfering food from any plate within arms reach.

Grown-up A and I laughed at how our hair in this pic makes us look like little girls.  With the beginnings of crows feet.

I think we need to have A and A over for a water day in our back yard sometime.  We always have so much fun with them.

For preschool a couple of weeks ago we learned about farm animals.  ODD’s parents have a lot of land and used to have all sorts of animals.  My FIL has Parkinson’s Disease and can’t keep up with all of them so over the years they’ve pared down quite a bit.  They still keep cows (none that need to be milked anymore, though) and chickens.  The Wild’s are also able to keep Wildbound’s horses, Wayfarer and Rio, there so they can ride whenever they want.  They also have a dog but I don’t know that he really qualifies as a farm animal.  Either way Peanut is very wary of him.

Sometimes when we visit them Peanut will go out with ODD’s mom or dad to the barn to gather the eggs from the chickens.  I’m not sure how this really goes down as I’ve never witnessed it myself but I suspect it involves Peanut remaining near the door of the barn and watching as the person she is with actually goes into the chicken coop to get the eggs.  There’s a big woodpile on the path to the barn and sometimes we see a bunny or two sneak around there.  She likes looking at Rio and will even pet his pretty mane (he’s what you’d picture as a princess horse) as long as he doesn’t look at her but screams and cries if we even suggest she go for a ride on him.  She knows there are cows at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and sees them in the field sometimes but we don’t often go look at them.

Because of all this Peanut knows a bit about farm animals but ODD’s parents house isn’t exactly a farm and I wanted her to learn what a farm can actually be like.  As an activity one day we went to Wheeler Farm.  I called up Lady of Perpetual Chaos to see if she and her girls would like to go along and we all met over there for lunch.  The girls ran around and played while occasionally picking at their lunches and Lady of PC and I chatted.  Wingnut ate his half of a sandwich, finished most of Peanut’s sandwich, then scarfed down a bunch of Cheetoes as well.  Apparently he was starving.

After playing for a while we went to see the rest of the farm.  I brought along some extra bread and we fed the ducks and geese.  Wingnut was quite cautious of a goose that was rather close but he didn’t scream like he did with the duck when I tried to take his picture a while ago.  There were even a few tiny ducklings and goslings.

We saw the horses and one seemed particularly fond of Lady of PC.  He followed her all along the fence as we looked at the bunnies.  Some of the bunnies were huge.  I sort of wished we could pet them because they looked so soft but they were in their little hutches.  I thought this one was such a pretty color.  It doesn’t show up much in the photo but it had a red tint to it’s fur.

We saw big cows out in a field and goats in pens.  We saw a huge pig that peed in front of us and made the girls giggle.  There was a tractor out that kids could sit on to get their pictures taken.  The girls especially loved that.  Yes, my daughter is wearing both a dress and a skirt.  She dresses herself.

We walked around to the lambs so Peanut could see their wool.  While we were looking at them one of them bleated loudly and scared the daylights out of Wingnut.  He jumped and screamed.  Perhaps the lamb thought Wingnut was talking to him because he began bleating more and more and we eventually had to move away to help Wingnut feel better.

The turkeys were funny to see and we gobbled at them.

The chickens and roosters were noisy but not as scary as the lambs were apparently.  One of the roosters was wandering around outside the coop like he was keeping guard.

There was a little playhouse and huge tree the girls had fun playing on.

On our way back through the farm we saw a few young cows and Peanut even touched the pink nose of one of them.  It was quite a break through

Lady of PC and I let the girls play more so we could keep visiting.  It was sunny out but still a bit chilly and, naturally, I managed to get my forehead, nose, and part sunburned.  Oh, well.  Not everything can be perfect.  I didn’t take the pics until the sun was down and our indoor lighting isn’t the greatest but you can still kind of see it.  I spent the rest of the week either itching or peeling and now it looks like I have dandruff because of my part.  Love that.

• Kermit recently painted her living room and dining room and even though things are put back together she is still in the process of decorating.  We talked about some ideas for pictures and arrangements and I can’t wait to see what else she does.
• Since I left Fozzie built up a pantry beside their fridge.  They still have some work to do on the backsplash but it’s exciting to see it all come together and I especially love it now that I’ve been there to actually see what everything looks like in real life.
• Most of the nights we were there the kids turned on music and had a little dance party.  Animal and Peanut would dress up in different “costumes” to do their “ballet.”  The other kids joined in on the non-”ballet” songs.  One night Scooter had a flashlight out and put different colored plastic plates in front of the light to change its color.  Kermit, Teeny, and I sat on chairs and were thoroughly entertained by the kids’ performances.  It was seriously hilarious.
• Even Wingnut got in on the dancing.  Every time the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah came on (I sing Messiah pieces quite a bit so he recognizes it) he got all excited.  He would shake his head back and forth and bounce up and down.  If he was standing he would move his feet around like he was dancing while shaking his head.  He had a great time until he got too exhausted.
• The Muppet family has a couple of cats, Tornado and Lightning.   Peanut finally got fairly comfortable with them after several days but Wingnut only touched them a grand total of twice the whole time we were there.  While getting the kids to bed sometimes one of the cats would climb onto the top bunk in the room we were staying in.  One night after I’d put Wingnut down in his pack and play so he could fall asleep the car perched above him on the bunk leaped down into the pack and play with him.  It scared Wingnut to pieces to see a cat coming at him so quickly when he couldn’t get away (we still swaddle him) and he screamed and cried.  The cats are both really good with kids but I think Wingut’s shrieking scared the cat that jumped into bed with him and the cat was more than happy to be picked up and carried out to the hall where he was let go again.  Wingnut needed a little consoling but I had to stifle a giggle imagining what his point of view might have been watching a cat come at him from above.  I’m such a supportive, compassionate mom.
• Peanut lost her crown.
• Let me write that one again.  PEANUT LOST HER CROWN!  She took it off on Day 1 so she could wear some of Animal’s dress up crowns and at some point over the next few days it disappeared.  I searched the house high and low for it but couldn’t find it anywhere.  I told Kermit if it made its way back into view to please mail it to us.  About halfway through our drive home I got the call telling me it had surfaced.  It was out in the backyard.  I knew the kids went out there on the first day of our trip but I had seen it in the house after that and didn’t think the kids had gone out back again so I didn’t bother to look there.  Apparently they had and that’s where Kermit had found it.  We left a few other things as well so she’s mailing all our lost belongings back to us.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do about the crown.  It’s nice seeing her actual hair again without the crown.  ODD’s sick of looking at it all the time so he’s inclined to keep it hidden.  I’m not so sure.  She asked for it for a few days after we got back and wanted to keep checking the mailbox to see if it was in there yet.  She seems to have forgotten about it over the last little while, though.  I’m still undecided about what to do.  Either way the consecutive-days-wearing-the-crown countup has ended at 111 days.
• I’m so happy we took the trip and I finally got to see where the Muppets are living now.  They come back to Utah to visit for various reasons so I’ve been able to see them a couple of times a year but this is the first time I’ve been to visit them and I had such a great time.  Thanks for having us visit, Muppets!  I love you!