My Quilt Top is Finished!

My mild bit of exciting news for the weekend is that I finished my quilt top for my snowman/winter wonderland quilt! I have been working on this quilt for probably 2 years now. Long time. I have to say that it is a piece of art! My sister, Teri, and I designed it ourselves, but we did base it off another quilt. It is so darling! It has brighter colors than any other quilt I have made, but it is wonderful because of it. (You may not think it has brighter colors--but it truly does in comparison to my earth tone colors of my other quilts.) So now I just have to put together the backing--and it will be so cute!

(Click on the picture to see the details!)

Mountain Biking is Hard!

I went mountain biking for the first time in years along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail this past Saturday . . . and it was hard!! Cary was sooooo nice to take me--he couldn't have taken anyone more novice than me. He took me up the trail (which was more like a little road) and we got started. I had to walk my bike up the first two hills, but after that I got better. Except when I would stop to catch my breath--then I would get light-headed. Ugh. I was so embarrassed. But it might have had a little something to do with it being like 3:00 or 3:30 in the afternoon and I had not eaten since 8:30 or so that morning. Kind of yucky huh? But, I've gotta start somewhere. So that is where I started. The last time I attempted to ride my bike on a trail in the mountains was with Erick in summer of 2002. It kicked my trash then too, but for good reason: the kickstand on my bike was pinching the wire that allowed me to use some of my gears. Sadly, I didn't have that excellent excuse this time! I am so not in shape for anything that intense, anyway.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter all! This was a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Lindsey taught a CPR certification course for a ward emergency preparedness activity Saturday morning and I got certified! It was very interesting and scary at the same time. Did you know there is a Good Samaritan law to protect a certified CPR person that administers CPR to another person? Yeah, apparently somebody sued the person that administered CPR to him for something (maybe cracked a rib or something)? Can you imagine?! "Yeah, thanks for saving my life, but I'm gonna sue you because you caused some minor problem by administering CPR." Ridiculous!

Anyway, I digress. I then went to a fun little Easter Egg Hunt & Picnic! Ashlee and her roommate, Suzanne, put it on. They hid over 100 eggs in the park for us to find. It was so fun. It was a small group of good friends from the ward. It definitely added to the festivities of the holiday. And then I went roller-blading up the Provo River Trail! 9 (yes, nine) miles round trip. Isn't that awesome?! That is how many miles I roller-bladed all said and done. It was so beautiful outside that I just had to do something up in the canyon and outside! I pretty much walked in my roller-blades up the hills though. I just can't get enough speed or strength to actually blade up the hills. Oh well. I really wanted to go skiing and use my last two free tickets to Deer Valley, but I couldn't find anyone that wanted to go. So I have given them to Lindsey thinking that maybe her and her mom could go this week while her mom is in town. I still have 3 tickets to Park City so maybe next Saturday??? We will see.

And then today was quiet. It was Fast Sunday! I just think that is much too much to do on a holiday. But I did it nonetheless. I actually made our family recipe for Creamed Egg Gravy and Biscuits Saturday night for dinner since I figured it was Fast Sunday today. It turned out really good if I don't say so myself. Yum. Although, I think I roll out my biscuits too thin. The recipe said it makes 10 biscuits and when I make it, it makes like 16 or so. Hmmm. My roommate, Linda, made a traditional Easter dinner for us: ham, potatoes, green beans, pineapple and then a Dutch apple pie for dessert. That was super nice and fun. And that is it. I kind of watched The Testaments with my roommates and friends. Nice and quiet Sunday.

And then a couple of last thoughts:

John 20: 13-16

"And [two angels] say unto [Mary Magdalene], Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master."

Luke 24: 5-6

" ...Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen ..."

President Ezra Taft Benson:

"No other single influence has had so great an impact on this earth as the life of Jesus the Christ. We cannot conceive of our lives without his teachings. Without him we would be lost in a mirage of beliefs and worships, born in fear and darkness where the sensual and materialistic hold sway. We are far short of the goal he set for us, but we must never lose sight of it; nor must we forget that our great climb toward the light, toward perfection, would not be possible except for his teachings, his life, his death, and his resurrection.

May God hasten the day when people everywhere will accept his teachings, his example, and his divinity, yes, when they will accept as a reality his glorious resurrection, which broke the bonds of death for all of us."

I Love to See the Temple

Tonight I enjoyed some peace. Peace only brought on by attending the temple. There is something so wonderful, so sacred, peaceful, contemplative, and calming about going to the temple. Every time I go, my convictions are renewed, my perspective is broadened, and my troubles are resolved. Questions, concerns, problems are minimized and don't seem so huge. I can return to every-day-life and conquer it after attending the temple! I am so grateful for the temple and the work performed therein.

Girls Night Out!

Friday night, my flatmates and I had a little Girls Night Out! You know you wanted to be there. :o) It consisted of going to Cafe Rio for dinner and then going to Wally-world (aka Wal-Mart) to buy ribbons. Jewels had been to Wally-world earlier that day and found some really cute ribbons to put in her hair. So darling. Linda and I wanted to be just like her. While at Wally-world, I splurged and bought the movie, Casino Royale.

Linda and I stayed up and watched Casino Royale. I was impressed. The girl was actually real and so was Bond! Bond actually fell in love with her and had a real relationship. The girl---she was awesome! She didn't put up with any of his flattery and womanizing. On Saturday, I watched all of my favorite parts from it.

And boy oh boy was he handsome. Mmmm. Ha! :o)

A Day Off for Skiing!

Yay! Teri and Kelly and I were able to get Wednesday off work to go skiing. We went to Park City Resort and enjoyed 4 inches of new snow. It was a bit icy underneath but we found that the Jupiter chair provided for the best skiing conditions. It was so wonderful! Enjoy the pics!

Richy Rich Snowbunny Skiin'

A week and a half ago, my sister Robyn and her husband were in town on an annual ski vacation and she called me... with the best news ever!! She had 6 free lift tickets to Park City and 6 to Deer Valley that they didn't use! So she gave them to me. What a sweet deal, huh?

So on Saturday last, Jen and Linda and I were able to enjoy a different caliber of skiing... at Deer Valley. In the morning it was terribly icy, but that was too be expected as we have had 2 weeks of 60+ degree weather--so we mostly stuck to the groomers. After one run we decided to go shopping for Jen a new hat. We checked out the ritsy snow gear that I had no idea even existed! Try a $730 parka on for size! Some designers just don't have taste--there were some nasty coats in those shops. Anyway, we took another run and then we had a little photo-shoot. We got one of the on-mountain photographers to take a picture of us--or so we thought. He ended up taking somewhere around 20 photos of us in four different poses! One standing together with my skis crossed in front, another with me sitting on the ground in front of Jen while she put her hands on my shoulders, a third in the "best friend" pose where we are both sitting on our sides with our shoulders touching and then lastly in our skis in a natural pose with our poles between our skis and our right legs pushed out a bit. Who skis naturally with their poles between their skis!?!? Anyway, it was all I could do to not bust out laughing!!! It was such a crack up. Could we afford the photos? Of course not. One digital copy would have been $100 or else we could have gotten the cheapest print package for $34 (two 5x7s).

So then we went for another run and then we picked up Linda (she just skied a half day with us) and "Strike 3 Boy" (his story will come in a bit). Then we went to lunch and enjoyed a $9 burger and I had some carrot cake as well. I had to try out one of the original pastries mentioned in a cookbook I got for my birthday from two of my sisters: The Chocolate Snowball, which has pastry recipes from Deer Valley. (Way cool cookbook by the way--it has green circles, blue squares, and black diamonds to indicate how difficult a recipe is to make.) By then the snow had softened so we practiced our moguls for a run or two. And then we spotted some beach chairs and decided to take a little break and sun ourselves. (I don't have any pictures of myself, Jen and Linda took some of me with their camera phones--these pictures here are the ones I took with my camera phone.) Then we took another mogul run and flirted with three very cute patrollers. Jen and I are thinking we need to go up again and try to find those patrollers. :o) Then another run and we went back to the main lodge to take a look at our photo-shoot. And then that was our day! Wasn't it lovely? It was kind of a fun and different sort of pace for our skiing. Usually we are extremely hard core, but this was fun.

So the story about "Strike 3 Boy": Well, it all begins with me sending out a mass email inviting anyone to come with me--I wanted to share the joy of skiing for free and particularly since I will not be able to use all of the tickets by April 15th when both resorts close for the season. Well, one guy, whom I had never met before, emailed me saying he wanted to go and he gave me his phone number. So I responded and told him Jen and I were leaving at 8:00 am sharp. He didn't show. So I gave him a quick call and said, "Well, it is 8 o'clock and we are leaving right now. I guess we will catch you next time." Pretty clear message right--that he is sore out of luck? Not quite. He calls me around 10:00 am wondering if we have left yet and if he can still come.... I hesitated but I decided to be nice and I told him we would have to come back to the car to get the ticket out so he could use it. STRIKE ONE. A few minutes later he calls me and asks if Deer Valley allows snowboarding but if not he could bring skis. STRIKE TWO. (I wrote in my mass email that Deer Valley is for skiers only!) Then we went to pick him up and that is when he informs us that he has never been skiing before. STRIKE THREE!! Whoa. Jen gave him a quick 5 minute intro lesson to skiing and then we turned him loose on the mountain to fend for himself. (Jen used to be an instructor at Deer Valley.) The one redeeming quality about "Strike 3 Boy" is he was extremely grateful and thanked me many times for sharing the lift ticket with him. I am sure that is not the only quality about him, but in the short time span of our interaction, that was all I gathered.

Lesson learned: only email those whose skiing/riding abilities I am familiar with. Besides that, they are usually the only ones that come anyway. Just about every time I have gone skiing this season I have mass emailed and only those I knew already were the attenders.