Dining Area

The dining area is an awkward spot in the kitchen. The entrance from the garage forces us to walk through this area to get anywhere in the house. For months we did not have a table, but we did have a chandelier and after months of people banging their heads on the chandelier I decided we better get a table even though it would be a tight squeeze. My original idea was to put a bench up against the wall with a couple of small bistro tables to create a cafe look. I could not find a suitable bench and most affordable bistro tables look outdoorsy. We originally bought a heavy wooden table that was stunning in the showroom and looked dark and clunky in this space. We decided to look for a glass table which would have less visual weight and would not clash with our wood cabinets. I found a table I loved at DWR for $1600 and then I remembered that Ikea had a similar table for about $200.

http://www.dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=0856

The chairs, also from Ikea, fit a theme we had going. The legs are a brushed stainless which matches the table legs and the natural woven seats compliment our rattan woven bar stools. The materials are similar enough and different enough to sit right next to each other without clashing and without looking matchy-matchy.

The photos were taken by our friend Terry Miller on our trip to St. Louis last January. The area was experiencing an ice storm and the tree branches were encased in ice. The pictures have meaning for us and we love them.

Guest Room

The guest room was a lot of fun to put together. The bedspread and bedskirt are leftover from California. Now the story behind them is not a proud moment in my life. I bought them because they were something like 95% off in a store going-out-of business sale. Even though I did not love them I bought them because they had originally been $800 and I got them for $50. I think they are some high end boutique item, but I only bought them because of the price. Well I figured that I might as well try and make them work. I decided to go with a red, white and blue room, which is totally not my style. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked the end result. The bedside tables were first. They were the only ones I could find after two months of looking that were as tall as the bed. I bought them at Ikea and then I found the bench in the "as-is" area of Ikea. The bench as it turns out is a great idea for a guest room. It offers a place to put a suitcase and a spot to sit and put on your shoes.

We then bought the dresser which matched the nightstands and a white framed floor mirror to fill up an awkward angled wall. A couple of lamps which were unbelievable bargains were the jewelry for the room. The lamps are both Restoration Hardware and I got each one for $20.

Powder Room

The house is coming together slowly. This is the Powder Room on the main floor. The cabinet is from Pier 1 and what i love about it is it has a hidden drawer inside the door. Perfect for hiding feminine items.

Full Moon Ride

Sorry I don't have pictures for this one as I forgot my camera. Every month during the summer Sundance Resort opens the chairlift to riders during the full moon. What a cool experience! Jerry's grief over his mother's death made it a surreal, spiritual experience. Riding along in the pallid glow of the moon created a dream-like feeling of flying. Jerry declared this to be the best summer of his life. He added that the loss of his mother created a real physical pain in him and yet a sense of joy that her suffering is done. We talked about the beauty of the Plan of Salvation. Oh how grateful I am to be blessed to know what I know.

In Memoriam

Jerry's mom passed away this morning after eleven years of suffering the effects of cancer treatment. Believe it or not a couple of weeks ago she told her son that she did not want to die, because she was afraid she would miss out on something. This after years of excruciating pain.

Jerry was a lucky kid. His mom never fought with him, never gave him any trouble and forgave him for everything. Jerry could not take an inch with his dad, so he took a mile with his mom. As an adult he apologized many times for his behavior. His mom's stock reply: "Oh, I don't remember you ever doing one bad thing. You were an angel." Trust me when I say that Jerry was no angel, especially with his mom. One of his mom's favorite stories, that she repeated often, happened when Jerry was in about second grade. He returned home from school in a foul mood. He threw his lunchbox on the table and stomped to his room. His mom found that his entire lunch was still there and untouched. When she questioned Jerry about why he hadn't eaten his lunch he said, "You put mayonaise on my sandwich and you know I don't like mayonaise." She again asked, "But why didn't you eat the rest of your lunch?" He looked at her incredulously and said, "You put mayonaise on my sandwich, so it ruined my whole lunch." She handled this very sweetly as she handled most things in her life.

How do you sum up a person's life? She died too soon at only 71. As a kid she lived a poverty stricken existence and yet she was always neatly dressed in every photo. She had a keen awareness of her surroundings and her person and kept both immaculate. Jerry says that he never knew the bathroom faucet could develop spots, because every time he walked up to the faucet to brush his teeth it was sparkling. Her linen closet was so neat that it looked like a store display. She was a knockout beauty and showed unconditional love to everybody. At times Jerry would arrive home to find a former friend, no longer in his favor, sitting at his mom's table gabbing away with her. Jerry would say, "Mom, that guy is a loser." His mom would say, "He is a nice boy." No matter what evidence you presented she refused to see the "truth" of a person. She saw what she wanted to see.

At an early age she experienced tragedy of the highest order. Her family lived in the rear of their second hand furniture store. The brick building which soared two stories, without support, collapsed in an earthquake, burying the entire family. The parents escaped quickly, but Lois, one sister and two brothers were buried beneath the rubble together for a couple of hours. Three other sisters perished along with a friend who was spending the night. All of the children were hospitalized for weeks and many people recount how the father's hair turned white practically overnight. Forever after Lois was afraid of the dark and slept with a nightlight. The only relief from our grief is to think of the happy reunion she is having with her three little sisters and her parents.

Lois had a long hard life full of endless health problems and more times than I can recall we were told this was it, she is not going to make it through this one. At least a dozen times or more we rushed to her bedside to say our final goodbyes. She was given a year to live, six or seven years ago. In the end she weighed 68 pounds and was too fragile for surgery. Her husband loses his partner of 57 years today and we shall see if he recovers from the effects of ten years as sole caretaker.

Makin' Memories with Our Money

For our New Years Resolution in January 2006 we decided that our resolution would be about money. We sent money to Hurricane Katrina victims, we bought this and that, and at the end of the year we felt a little hollow. We paid our tithing, we gave in other ways, and we paid off some debt. What was missing? We decided to create a motto for money: "Make money, make memories." In other words we were tired of living to work. We not only wanted to work to live, but to make expenditures meaningful. Here is a partial list:

Fly at least one person to visit us each year (I would love to have someone do this for me)
Only buy things that are designed to create memories
* firepit - yes
* one more pair of cute shoes - no
* musical instruments - yes
* car accessories - no
* vacation - yes
* daily Jamba Juice - no
Donate cash to causes that are dear to us, not respond reactively to every global emergency

I could go on, but you get the idea. This summer we paid to have one of Jerry's favorite students come to Utah from California. We take my mom and dad out to eat every chance we get. We bought a firepit for intimate outdoor gatherings in the backyard.


Jerry and Autumn, our visitor

I wish I would have thought of this idea twenty years ago. I have bought and discarded hundreds of pairs of "cute" shoes.


And of course birthday cake is always money well spent!!! This is my nephew Wyatt and my sister Heidi, his crazy aunt.

The Alpine Loop

Jerry and I try to see something new every week. This week we drove the Alpine Loop from American Fork Canyon past Sundance and into Provo Canyon. We had a really memorable day, which included a nice picnic in the trees. We decided to stop at Sundance and have a look around. The highlight of our visit came when we rode the chair lift to the top of the mountain. What a beautiful experience. We came away so relaxed and rejuvenated. Every once in a while Jerry will go to Massage Envy. He said the ride on the chair lift was so much more relaxing and that instead of working a massage into the budget, we should go ride the chair lift once a month. At $8 per person the chair lift is a much better value than a massage. The time alone with no distractions was priceless.

Seven random things. Tag!!!

I have been tagged. Thanks Annie! Seven random things about me! Besides the fact that I miss you all?

1. At one point in my life I undertook a rigourous course in Wilderness Psychology which included completing two vision quests. One was in Death Valley in December. What no one told me is that it is dark by 5:00 p.m. Death Valley is below sea level and the sun goes to bed very early there. I spent four days and four looooong nights with no food, no shelter and no company. I endured a fifteen hour sandstorm, freezing temperatures, and mice running around under my thermarest every night. I also received visits from a kit fox each night. He would scratch and sniff at my water jug and whine like a puppy until I poured him some water.

2. One night a few years ago I was awake at 3:00 a.m. (kind of like I am now) and CNN announced that the shuttle was about to land. They said it was going to fly over the northern U. S. starting at San Francisco. I ran outside and waited and waited. I had given up hope, not knowing what to look for, when I heard a loud rumble. The spectacle I beheld can hardly be described. Imagine the exhaust trail of a normal airplane times 100. The glow from the tail and the very wide exhaust trail had a purple glow to them. To say that the shuttle was streaking across the sky would be an understatement. It crossed the sky so quickly I had to catch my breath. I wept at the speed and beauty of it. I ran in to watch TV and about six minutes later the shuttle touched down in Florida. Try to imagine something flying at 20,000 miles per hour.

3. I moved to New York City to be a nanny. It was completely horrible. When I tendered my resignation, after only two weeks on the job, the woman of the house said, "Did my husband touch you? We have had problems with that in the past." He had not touched me, but I was not going to wait around for anything. I called a cab in the middle of the night. I met a friend in Brooklyn who put me up for a week. I found a job, an apartment, and stayed in New York City for four years.

4. I spent my last three weeks of high school in Italy with my cousin ( and I still graduated). While there I met up with an Italian friend and after spending the evening with her in Rome she gave me directions back to my pensione. As I walked alone down a dark narrow street I saw a large gang of boys and felt an overwhelming sense of dread, but decided to keep walking with my head up. An arm reached out from a darkened doorway and grabbed me and pulled me in. There stood a nun in full habit. She put finger to lips and we both pressed up against the wall. After the boys passed she ushered me into the alley with a pat on the head and an iron gate clanked shut behind me. Can't help wondering about that one. Angel or what?

5. Jerry and I were apparently meant to meet. Jerry and I were at the same Lionel Richie concert at Madison Square Garden in 1986. Neither one of us enjoy his music, but we both had free tickets. We did not meet until four years later.

When we did meet Jerry said, "I think I know a couple of Mormons." He described meeting a guy who ran a club in Colorado who had a bunch of kids, "so he must be Mormon". I pressed him for the guys name and a couple of times he said, "You wouldn't know him." Finally he said his name was John McEuen. That is my uncle and the bunch of kids were my six cousins. The first day we met, Jerry mentioned my uncles name to me without having any way of knowing that was my uncle. Weird!

Jerry's grandfather and my grandmother died one day apart in 1969, so we often wonder if they were waiting in line together and schemed to get us together. I think we were destined to meet.

6. I share a birthday with my father-in-law and his father. All three of us have/had a small mole in the exact same spot on our ring toe of our left foot. That is where our similarities end, seriously, I am nothing like them, nothing at all like them.

7. I did not apply to be in my masters program. One day a week or two before graduation from undergrad one of my mentors asked me if I would like to be a masters student in the fall. I said, "Yeah sure." The next day with no prep I took the GRE and did alright, good enough to qualify I guess. Just like that I was in graduate school. Five grueling years later I graduated. I made up for my lazy entrance with an excruciatingly long exit. It was my own fault. I was trying to write the quintessential book on the psychological benefits of knowing your family history. If you want to know what the benefits are you can read my magnum opus in the Sonoma State library. Finally a friend said, "It is just another school assignment. Turn in your homework and be done, once and for all."

I tag Malinda, Kara B., Laurel, and Patience (and Heather if she is still blogging) One extra for good measure!

Commitment

Autumn, one of Jerry's students from California paid us a visit last week. During her visit we were invited to a spend one day up in Big Cottonwood Canyon with the family of a current student, Thomas. Autumn started guitar lessons March 1, 2005. She could not really play and now two years later she is an accomplished guitarist. Her knowledge of the instrument is deep and she is able to speak the language, so to speak. Here Thomas, Autumn, and Jerry sing together. Thomas and Autumn have one thing in common, they are both committed. So few students show up every week without fail and show up prepared. Autumn and Thomas show a level of dedication that is rare.

If you want your kids to be great musicians there are two keys. 1. Get them to their lessons 50 weeks of the year, no matter what. 2. Make them practice. Thomas' mom gives him a minute of gameboy time for every minute spent practicing guitar, she does not have to nag him at all. No guitar, no gameboy. Thomas proudly proclaims that he practices at least an hour a day.

Someone asked why we had this particular student visiting and I said, "She was the most dedicated student Jerry ever had." This person said, "Oh, she is committed. She is not going to have much trouble in life." I thought it was an interesting statement. When you know where you are going and you have made an investment in yourself it is difficult to be pulled off course.