HAWAII

Hawaii was........

The best and the worst. Most of you have already seen or heard about my knee injury. I had a spectacular spill at the end of a waterfall hike. Luckily, it was at the end of the hike so we had already enjoyed jumping and swimming in waterfalls (although I still had to hike back out of the canyon), but unfortunately the hike was at the beginning of our vacation.

So I spent the entire week in a leg brace. Uuugh. The first day was a little "woe-is-me" but then I forced myself to stop the self pity because I couldn't change what happened and I didn't want to ruin my vacation or anyone else's. Besides, there is plenty of time for self pity when you are sitting on your mom's couch and it's 115 degrees outside and you can't go anywhere. So, vacation was a little more challenging than planned, but we still had a great time. A few of the highlights:

The wedding was, of course, the best part of the week. This was Greg Pfeiffer's wedding - a family we have been very close to my entire life (our dad's were best friends). It was a gorgeous location; an old sugar mill that has been turned into an event location. It was a relatively small wedding, so we knew most of the people there. Everyone was so happy and beautiful and relaxed that, despite the gigantic brace on my leg, it was a very magical day.

The day before the wedding, in place of a rehearsal dinner, the entire group was treated to a snorkel boat ride on the Pride of Maui! This was the only thing I couldn't participate in and I was more than a little bummed because everyone said the snorkeling was awesome. It was Jen's first time snorkeling and she was hooked! She said the fish came right up to her! There was a slide off the back of the boat that provided endless amusement and the crew cooked hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. I enjoyed the sunshine and read my book.... it wasn't too bad because it was nice just to be out on the water.

Of course, the Polynesian Cultural Center was a highlight for me because mom has always wanted to go and this was her first time. She was in Hawaii in 1958 (summer after she graduated high school) and 1960 (my grandpa worked over there for about 1 year). BYU-Hawaii was open, but the PCC was still being built. As soon as we knew we were heading to Maui for the wedding, we both agreed too spend an extra couple days in Oahu so mom could get a chance to go to the PCC. It was well worth it! She loved going to the different "islands" and, especially, watching the students interact with the crowds. I think she felt a great sense of pride in the students, BYU, and the church. It was fun to watch her enjoy it so much.

It was a great week. I wish I had been able to take long strolls at sunset along the beach, but maybe I'll save that for my romantic honeymoon. :-) We ate tons of fresh fruit, drank fresh coconut juice, had the best garlic shrimp I've ever imagined

(from Giovanni's shrimp truck), laughed with life-long friends, and watched the gorgeous Hawaiian sunsets. It's hard to complain about such a life.

FAMILY FUN TIME

I have nothing particularly newsworthy to report, just an update on the past 2 weeks with all the family.  And I mean ALL.  Jennie and the kids were here for a full 2 weeks!  We honestly tried to remember the last time they were here that long and realized that it has been more than 5 years.  So, this was a real treat.  We started with a 2-day excursion to Disneyland which was hilarious.  I chose a few of my favorite pictures.  If I had a scanner, I would be able to include the entire family photo we took with the official D-land photographer who talked like Donald Duck the entire time.  It was so disturbing that we couldn't stop laughing.  Even Nicholas has a funny look on his face.  Maybe someday I'll get a scanner........

As an explanation, the picture of Matt looking like he is on the phone is actually a great picture of him making fun of his sister who did spend almost the entire day on the phone calling or texting everyone she knows!  The picture with the 3-D glasses is from the new Toy Story ride which was.... AWESOME!   We loved it and it's a good thing because it was a 70 minute wait.  We also loved the Jungle Cruise (same great jokes year after year), Autopia (Nathaniel's favorite because he could "drive") and, my favorite, Tower of Terror!  

After Disneyland, Jennie and I came back to Indio so I could work the last few days of school while mom and the kids stayed in LA with Julie and did fun stuff there.  They all drove out the following weekend and we had about a week here of shopping, movies, and the ultimate summer fun..... slip 'n slide!!!!!!  We had stupid fun for hours as you can see. :-)

Everyone's gone home now and the heat has officially arrived here in the desert.  Ugh.  School is out, so I am spending most of my time looking for a job for next year and planning my high school 20th reunion.  Oh, and a trip to Hawaii in 3 weeks.  Yes, mom and Jennie and the kids and I are going to Maui for a family wedding.  So I suppose my next update will be when we get home.... unless something spectacular happens in the meantime.  But considering the fact that it's too hot to leave the house, I don't imagine much will happen.  

Waaaaaay overdue for an update........

So my promise of several updates in the next month turned out to be quite ridiculous, yes?  No excuses.  I am going to wrap the last few months up in a couple of paragraphs........

First, there was Inauguration.  It was awesome.  It was also the coldest I think I have ever been in  my life.  Seriously.  I went to DC because I was hired for the week to work for the same company I worked for when I lived there - an organization called Close Up that brings high school students from all over the country for week-long educational programs.  Naturally, they have an increased interest during Inauguration weeks so all former Instructors get a chance to go back.  I worked in 2001 for the first inauguration of GW Bush, but didn't go back for the second.  I had already agreed to go for this one long before we knew who won the election, but I do admit proudly that I was very excited when I knew it would be the inauguration of Obama!  Yes, I say that proudly.  It was incredible being there the whole week because the energy of the city was so high.  Even with all the millions of tourists, like myself, it was remarkably calm and friendly everywhere we went.  Hope.  You could feel it all around.  And happiness.  Excitement.  It was a tremendous moment standing with a thousand strangers all crying with joy.  I didn't really cry at the Oath of Office.  I loved it, but I had already cried on Sunday when Bono sang Pride on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the pre-Inauguration concert.  THAT was my moment: Bono, Obama, Lincoln Memorial, MLK, Jr.   It doesn't get any better than that for me.  :-)

EASTER 

The next big event was Easter.  We had all the family here along with a few extended family.  Mom wanted an old-fashioned Simpson Easter egg hunt and that means a LOT of eggs, prizes, and some super-difficult hiding places.  It also meant we combined with Pury's house across the street and invited all the neighbors.  It was old school.  The golden egg was hidden inside a tennis ball at the bottom of the sports equipment bag.  Most of the teenagers gave up looking for it, but with a few well-placed hints, Dannie eventually got her hands dirty (literally) and found it.  So here are some of my favorite Easter pictures.

The rest.......

So that brings me up to the here and now.  I am finishing 2 classes for this term which puts me firmly in the middle of the credential program.  Looks like a tough time to be hoping for a teaching gig, so I may have to get a different job in the fall while I finish the credential and pray that the teaching profession makes a rebound here in wonderful California.  

Mom and I spent a week in Milford with Jennie and the kids and I learned how peaceful it can be to live in a small town with no internet and no cell phone service.  It actually turned out to be very wonderful for a week, but by Friday I was a little too excited for our trip to the "big" city of Cedar.  :-)  

It's getting very hot here.... very hot.  And brown and ugly.  Ugh... summer.  But there are some things to look forward to.  Jen and the kids are coming back in two weeks and we are taking another family trip to Disneyland.  This will be Nathaniel's first real trip to the Happiest Place on Earth and we are all excited for his initiation!  You're not a real Simpson until you worship the Mouse and his place.  

I will TRY to be better at updates.  I make no promises this time.......

FREEDOM

After making a comment to Melissa about being "off the grid" for a week or so and hearing her snort that my last blog - Christmas - was NOT a week or so ago, I was determined to update tonight!  I have lots to update, so I will break them into several blogs in the next week.... so check back often!  

First is my Word for 2009.... FREEDOM.  My sis, July, got this idea from a blog she stalks so I can't take credit.  But I loved the idea and I ran with it.  I decided not to make New Years resolutions, but choosing a word for the year seemed like a really great idea.  So, you ask, why Freedom?  Well, it encompasses everything for me.  It touches all aspects of my life in a way. FREEDOM from the negative thoughts that eat at my self esteem.  I will stop listening to the devil inside that tells me I am not good enough, happy enough, pretty enough, or smart enough.  I am who I am and I am who God made me.  I am a culmination of all my past experiences, my present choices, and my future hopes and dreams.  With all my strengths and weaknesses, I love who I am.  I choose Freedom from the idea that I need to be someone else, somewhere else, or doing something else.  FREEDOM from the constant worries that consume my thoughts.  Some may call me a worry-wart.  Others may call me bossy or controlling.  I have lived with constant worry about the people I love, the lives we lead, the unknown future.  Where will I be?  What will I be doing?  What about my family?  This is the year of freedom from worrying about things I can't control.  Let go and let God.  FREEDOM from worrying about what other people think of me and freedom from worrying about disappointing them and the guilt I feel.  Freedom from guilt.  I cannot control how others react or how they think, so why feel guilty?  I live my life the best I can being who I want to be, doing things I want to do, having the people I want in my life.  Freedom to live the life I want to live and not feeling guilty about the choices I make.  FREEDOM from the bad health habits I have created and the invisible chains that bind my body as a result of these.  I will free myself of extra weight and the tired and weak body that comes from poor nutrition and a lack of exercise.  I will be free to live healthy and strong.  

FREEDOM.  It's a good word.  It's a life changing word.  It's my word in 2009.  What's yours?

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

Okay, okay... I know it's been awhile.  A whole month, actually.  But I got really busy after Thanksgiving and then I got sick the whole week before Christmas and now I am sitting here with a massive headache (probably stress induced) trying to update my blog because it seems silly to have the title with no substance (and because Emily got a little sassy in her comment!).  Actually, I have been thinking about this blog post for most of the week since everything this time of year often revolves around tradition.  So here goes.....

I come from a family of tradition lovers.  We LOVE our traditions.  Sometimes we debate (discuss rapidly) which behaviors are actually tradition and which are not, sometimes we resurrect old traditions, sometimes (due to current circumstances) we postpone traditions for next year, and sometimes we catch ourselves doing the same thing over and over and pronounce, "it must be TRADITION!" Whatever its origin or reason, my family loves our traditions.  And I have come to rely on them for a certain sense of familiarity and belonging and comfort.... especially when sick.  I thought I would share a few of my favorite from this year.

Christmas decorations  

1-The past many years, although not when we were children, my mother puts her Department 56 North Pole Village set on the mantle and lights it up.  These houses - each house with a letter on it (the entire set spells out North Pole) - stay lit all day and all night.  In the evening, with the fire in the fireplace, the lights of the room low, the TV turned off, the village's soft glow fills our family room with this incredible look.  I always try to take one night to sit on the sofa after everyone has gone to bed, sip a cup of tea or hot chocolate (or warm milk with honey when I have a cough) and be quiet in the soft glow.  It has become one of my favorite calming traditions during a season of chaos.  

2-My entire life we have had wood letters with Christmas paintings on them that spell out N-O-E-L.  They are free standing, so we can space them as close together or as far apart as we wish.  Every Christmas season, NOEL somehow rearranged itself to spell LEON with a little help from my dad.  Who is LEON, you ask?  Who knows.  It doesn't matter.  LEON has become my dad's NOEL and even now one of us will always rearrange the letters in his honor.... some traditions become more about the person than the actual act.

3-The Christmas tree and its ornaments are generally a source of frustration every year.  We never seem to get one that pleases everyone and I have decided that stringing lights around the tree is the worst job EVER invented.  How many times can you get poked in the face with pine needles before you give up?!?!  So this year I refused to put the ornaments on.... long story, but we ended up with a beautiful tree filled with salt dough star cookies and hand strewn garland of popcorn and cranberries.  It was gorgeous.  But Christmas Day I realized that ornaments are not just there to give me grief, many are part of our tradition.  So I admit that I, too, was a little bummed that I scrooged out and didn't hang our traditional ornaments on the tree this year.  It seemed like Christmas-light without the Starship Enterprise ornament with a button that says, when pushed, "shuttle craft to enterprise, shuttle craft to enterprise... spock here.  Live long and prosper."

Christmas Eve

1- I have no idea when or why this started as our dinner tradition, but for as long as I can remember we eat spaghetti on Christmas Eve.  Not just any spaghetti, though.  This is Ce Pfeiffer's traditional Italian sauce recipe with short ribs and italian sausages that simmer in the sauce all day long.  It is so good.  I don't think any of us would ever trade this tradition for another kind of dinner on Christmas Eve.  

2- After dinner, we have always had a short Christmas Eve program.  As kids, there were often skits involved.  But when we moved here over 25 years ago, one of our first Christmas Eve's involved a power outage.  So we gathered all the candles we could and continued reading the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures, another story mom would always buy for dad to read, sing a couple Christmas songs and drink wassail.  The lights out became an instant family classic to be recreated every Christmas Eve since (although now with our aging eyes, we tend to leave one of the lights on in an adjacent room as well as the Christmas tree lights, of course).  

3- Midnight Mass.  Obviously, this became a tradition for the adults who were still up wrapping presents and putting together Santa toys.  I don't think I have ever watched the entire thing.... I get a little sleepy with all the Latin and bell ringing and stuff.  But I love the tradition of having it on the TV as we move in and out of rooms finishing preparations for the big day.  I will always stop to watch the Pope and listen to a few of the songs.  It really is quite impressive.

Christmas Day

I realize everyone has the tradition of opening presents, so I will skip ahead to the after party with Johnny Mathis or Bing Crosby blasting from the CD player and mom cooking a ginormous breakfast to get us through the day.  Then the frenzy begins.  The most notable tradition of opening presents/stockings, however, is the tangerine in the toe of our stocking.  Every year we have a tangerine (discovered only recently to be from the neighbor's tree) in the toe of our stocking to prevent smaller items of treats or toys from falling down there and getting lost. Oh, and corn nuts.  Yuck.  Every year a bag of corn nuts in my stocking and every year I hand them straight over to Julie.  Stocking traditions are the best!

It was a wonderful Christmas as you can see.  I am indeed grateful for my family this year and every year.  I am especially grateful for our traditions that I can pass on to my own family someday..... and now to all of you.  I will save our New Years tradition for my next post.  For now I wish you all a very happy holiday.  Thanks for all you have given me in love andfriendship in 2008 and I look forward to an even better 2009!

Thanksgiving.... Trot and all

So, it's been a month since my last post and I have now become the blogger that I make fun of - same dumb post day after day after day.  Sorry, folks.  Most of November was uneventful, so I will skip-a-dee-doo-dah ahead to Thanksgiving.  All the family was here - 7 adults, 4 kids, 3 dogs.  Tight fit, but it was a whole lotta fun.  For those of you who care, Jen and I got up early Thanksgiving morning for the 5K Turkey Trot.  It rained in the beginning, but cleared up nicely.  I admit that I walked most of the route, but my goal was to finish and I did.  At first I was disappointed in myself, but Jennie kept reminding me that this is only the beginning and I need to be proud of what I did accomplish and use that to move forward.  By the time we got home, I had recommitted myself to another 5K where my goal will be to run the entire course!  I am grateful for a sister who is so supportive and, yet, so give-it-to-me-straight.  She cheered me the whole way and then reminded me of what I need to do better for next time.  

Thanksgiving Day and weekend was great.  Full of lots of food and fun with the whole famdamily.  We did plenty of shopping and eating, even managed our traditional outing to Wildlights at The Living Desert and, of course, lunch at Thai Smile.  But the best part is our TRADITION - every year since 1984 we each have written thoughts and hopes for that year to be placed in a "time capsule" (which turns out to be old cookie tins).  Now we have so many that we open last year's, 5 years ago, 10 years ago and 20 years ago.  It is always one of the highlights of Turkey Day to read our time capsule letters from years past.  This year was most interesting because of the contrast of the situations I was in 5 years, 10 years, and 20 years ago.  In 1988, I was in my senior year of high school thinking about college with all the anxiety and excitement that held.  10 years ago, I was living in Washington DC and had just gone through one of the most difficult personal situations of my life and I was relying heavily on my faith and testimony of the Atonement of Christ.  Five years ago, in 2003, it was the first Thanksgiving without dad, which had changed my life so dramatically.  What was interesting to me was that these time capsule entries were so different in content and yet so similar in tone - in each one I talked about how blessed I am with good family and good friends who are loving, supportive, and keep me going through the good times and the bad.  Each time capsule had a strong sense of faith and humility and gratitude.  Of course I cried reading them because I remember the emotions of all three times of my life, but part of it was a happy cry because I have been so blessed and I am truly grateful for the people and the gospel in my life.  

RUNNING......

As some of you may already know, I am now a Runner.  It may come as a surprise to some, but a few months ago I started to realize that there is a big difference between the perception of who I am and the reality of who I am.  I think everyone does this to some extent in their lives, so I'm sure you can understand my point.  You see, I perceive of myself as athletic, sporty(spice), average-size, Meg Ryan-ish.  In a way, it's good because I don't have many fears about things I can and cannot do.  However, the reality of who I am started to become undeniable.  As I near the age that shall not be mentioned, my body jiggles and sloshes and aches more like a fat old lady and less like the person in my mind.  Therefore, I decided that I needed to close the gap between reality and perception.   

How do I do that, you ask?  That is an excellent question - I asked myself the same.  Luckily, I have some good friends who are runners themselves and knew that finishing a marathon is on my life to-do list (my 'bucket' list).  They convinced me that I can run a marathon in a year with training.  These girls aren't generally liars, so I decided to trust them.  I bought a good pair of shoes and started training for my first 5K run: Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning!  

I also wanted to say how much I love and am grateful for the friends I have in Indiana - the deKock family.  I love, love, love visiting them because Jessica and Daniel make me laugh so hard, because Jaden crawls in bed with me in the morning for at least 1/2 hour (and makes me laugh I almost pee), because Carly is so fun and interesting to hang with (and a great singer), because Carson and Soren are so sweet and funny and amazing.  I also love the look and smell of Autumn, which I don't get in Indio anymore.  Mostly I love being part of their lives - the ups and the downs, the craziness and the quiet moments, and the friends.  I adore all my new Indiana friends and am grateful they treat me like their own now.  Here are my two favorite pictures from my trip.  Love to all in Valpo.  Miss you!