My sister and her husband and 3 little boys got an offer on their house!

And will be moving down to Utah County in the next month hopefully. So exciting. I can see my 3 nephews a lot more and one of my sisters more too! And my fun brother-in-law who makes us all laugh. We are so happy for them. The offer came in today. More of Ander, Baby Wyatt, and Ben! How fun!

Memories of Childhood...

I was thinking about this today...and I wanted to put the question out there...so I am tagging whoever wants to post it on their blog...

Things I remember when I was a kid:

1) Growing up in "Rain World" in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, everyone had raincoats. Mine kind of looked like a secret agent coat...a more dressy kind. So once in a while, my older sister and older brother and younger brother used to pretend to be spies. Sneaking around the house. Funny!

2) When we stayed in a hotel, waiting to move back to Vancouver (we moved to Penticton, B.C. from when I was 4-8 years old), I was almost 8 years old and me and those same siblings played super heroes...I was Robin, my younger brother was Batman, and my older siblings were the villains. Pretty funny. I also had this cool superball that I would bounce into the pool that had no water in it. I remember that too. I probably lost that superball doing that!

3) My brother Gary and I used to pretend that mom and dad were giants...any adult was a giant. We would hide under the dining room table and watch their feet go by.

4) Gary doesn't remember this but I used to make him hang out with me and we would speak garbly no-nonsense words and pretend we were speaking a foreign language. HaHa.

Just fun to remember those childhood memories...what are yours?

Happy birthday to my sweet sister Karen.

She is such a sweet sister. I was just thinking of her. I am very lucky to have my sisters. They listen to me and care about me so much. They have more faith in me and in my future than I do a lot of times. I am really grateful to have my sisters in my life. 

My mom only has a brother and sometimes I wonder how fun it would have been for her to have a sister. You just can't compare having sisters. My dad was an only child. I guess my parents made up for it by having 7 children!

I also have 3 brothers. They are good guys and a couple of them are still figuring out things in their lives and it is fun to see them accomplish things in their lives...just as it is with my sweet sisters. 

Our whole family tends to be interested in the creative side of life...we can all draw and design and we enjoy writing too.

Growing up in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, in a family of 7 children, we did tend to raise eyebrows I guess. All I know is that I always had someone to play with and we had fantastic times playing down in the creek. I was never bored.

Draper Temple Fire Insurance paid up!

Okay this is kind of hard to see, but there was a fire today just north of the new Draper Temple. This is looking at Redwood Road. I was at the light on Bangerter. At about 4:10pm today. The little image in the pink circle is the temple. Almost under the street light , on the far right, you can see the edge of the fire. Luckily the smoke and fire blew to the north instead of possibly blowing to the south towards the temple. It was kind of cool! And who knows, maybe the wind doesn't blow to the south normally up there...all I know is that it was really cool to see it totally staying away from the temple. Sorry the photo is so small.

True That!

Okay, I have to admit that I laugh at this saying. "True that"  Just makes me wonder why you can't say, "That is true." Ah well. I have heard it a couple of times in the last while and it just cracks me up each time. The english language and correct sentence structure is flying out the proverbial window...

Oh well..at least it provides me with humor!

The Busy-ness continued this weekend

So I reported on my busy Friday...well, the busy stuff continued throughout the whole weekend... 

So Saturday came, clear and sunny, and I was off again...

7am-track

8:30-went to BYU to pick up the family friend (yes, I got to at least rest a little Friday night since the friend didn't need to be picked up till Saturday morning. I was grateful.)

9:15 or so-stop at McDonalds for the friend's breakfast then dropped off my mom and her friend at my mom's house.

10am to 12noon- a break and I stopped quickly at Costco for some things and then went home and worked on a mailing card for the www.signbabies.com products.

12noon to 5:15pm-running my mom and her friend to the postoffice, store, and then visiting a family friend in Alpine who had surgery on her ankle.

6pm-dropped mom and her friend off at mom's house.

6:15-ran home and got jeans on and a long sleeved shirt and blanket and a bottle of water.

6:25-ran out the door to the outdoor scera shell for "Dancing Under The Stars". That was fun to see. Lots of dance groups and some Utah talent that performed on Dancing With The Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. That ended at 10:30.

10:45-got home and quickly got to bed. Can't remember my head hitting the pillow.

Sunday:

5:30am-up again to get ready and eat breakfast

6:30am-ran out the door for temple training that went till 9:45am. (for trainers and coordinators)

10am-walked in the door, drew a couple of little bday cards for my sister Karen and her husband whose bdays are in the next few days.

-tried to rest a little since I had a bit of a headache. (tired I think)

11am-hometeachers. They stayed about 45  minutes.

-tried to get a little catnap in but it didn't happen.

1pm-church. only stayed for Sacrament meeting cuz we had a family get-together in slc at 4pm.

2:30-tried to grab a quick nap...maybe 10 minutes tops. Just so tired!

3pm- headed out the door to get my mom and her friend and a brother.

4pm-mom's friend hadn't packed yet so we waited about a half hour at my mom's. stopped in AF to have my sister Tracey and her boys follow us.

4:20- traffic at standstill on the freeway. oh great!  finally it started moving about 4:35 or so. A trailer came off of a truck.

5pm- got to my other sister's house where we were all meeting...in Cottonwood Heights.

-ate dinner and visited. I had a slight headache. a couple of nieces and nephews were playing with my iphone.

8:20-got home and next thing I knew I was hitting the pillow again and now it is Monday morning! What happened?

I think I would enjoy a less event-packed weekend. It is a little quiet here at work...maybe I can close my eyes for a bit...

OOps- I guess i only typed "a bush"

Ignore that I typed "a new bush"

I was trying to post a comment from my iphone and it didn't quite work...

how embarrassing!

Though I bet I could come up with some text about a bush...

Anyway, today was my day off from work...I went to the track, got my car's oil changed, went for an eye appointment, got my chimney trim fixed though the guy said it needs more work so he will be back the end of next week, went grocery shopping, went to find a piece of glass or plexiglass for my outside porch light holder-thingy (that is the technical name..haha), also bought some bug spray since the spiders of the world think that they can run rampant in a bush of mine. I gratefully don't see the spiders but the webs are there... and I am now drawing. Or am after I post this. And as soon as my mom's friend from our street in Vancouver finishes with Education Week, I will go pick her up to take her to my mom's. So that was my day off. I got a lot done but not the day of leisure I had hoped for.

By the way, the temple went okay last night even though I was running like crazy to keep up with my 7 trainees! 

A bush

This is a fun video! I hope this works...

This is a very cute video from youtube.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW58Kj822Rc

Utah Symphony at the Scera Shell

One more post for the day....me and a couple of friends have season tickets to the Scera Shell in the summertime. So fun! Last Friday we went to see Pride and Prejudice; The Musical. It was great! Just so fun to sit outside under the stars.

And last night, some good friends of mine, Mark and Christine,who used to be in my ward, that came to enjoy the Utah Symphony for Mark's birthday (that is coming up this Wednesday) joined us at the concert.  It was just fun to visit with them and to enjoy the summer night and listen to the beautiful music...and to let them play with my new iphone. It was fun to talk, listen, and laugh along with my friend Sherry and her mom and her mom's friends too. Just a nice night.

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY, MARKUS PARKUS! Yah, I call Mark that once in a while...go figure. 

ARE straight from Heaven

Hello Lori, pay attention as you type...

Babies are so sweet...

I know they can sometimes be a little bit crabby and I know they can sometimes drive parents a little crazy and I know that when they are close to the dreaded terrible twos that they are extremely unreasonable at times (kind of like the teen years I have observed), but something about them is just so endearing. It truly warms my heart when you catch the eye of a little boy or girl and get them to smile. It honestly melts my heart.

Last Sunday, I was sitting in front of this couple that I tend to end up sitting nearby a lot, and their little son Cameron, who just turned 1, was sitting there almost directly behind me. He has the cutest personality and once he knows I have noticed him, he makes little cooing and giggly sounds until I turn around to acknowledge him. He really is a cutie.

And then in Sunday School, I sat by this recently new mom with her 10 1/2 month old son named Jonah. They are only in our ward for a short time. I smiled at Jonah and at first he just stared with wide eyes at me with his binky suctioned into his mouth. (I don't think you could have pried that binky out of his mouth!) Then he just continued to stare at me. So I would look over at him and smile. He warmed up and started smiling back every time I looked in his direction. Just so cute. I guess he felt even more comfortable because as the class went along, I ONE TIME only just slightly tilted my head and smiled at him. From then on, when I would look over at him, he would tilt over so far that his head was almost pointing to the floor! It was pretty funny and I did apologize to the mother for her having to hang on to him as he turned upside down each time. Goodness. After a while he got tired of attempting his gymnastic moves...but it did make me smile. 

Seriously- kids just have this way about them with their sweet little chubby cheeks and their ready smiles. Like my little nephew Wyatt from a year ago. Now he is a busy 2 year old (and by the way, he is a sweetheart...other than when my sister Karen sings to him, he says, "No!" A person could get a complex... ; ) Truly these little people our straight from Heaven! No question.

Yay for Sundays!

Even though it is a sad reminder that work is tomorrow (Yes, my dream is to be independently wealthy [though I am grateful for my job since it does pay my bills], travel the world if I want, spend more time with friends and family, do my own drawing projects and build up my freelance, and live in a house...with a garage...ah. the list goes on...but I am getting sidetracked obviously. Dream, dream, dream...), Sundays are wonderful days. It is just good to go to church and be reminded of the important things in my life.  I am grateful for this foundation in my life. I have much to be thankful for!

I do wish though that the Friday afternoons and Saturdays of the week would slow down their hours a little more though so that the weekend would last as long as the work week does. Now that would be great! I heard once though that you shouldn't "wish your life away". But I think sometimes it is okay to wish to make your life a little better...just fulfilling more dreams, goals ...etc. Right?

Oh, I went to the musical Pride and Prejudice on Friday night. I thought they did a fantastic job. I ended up sitting right next to the lady who wrote the script and words to the music. Wow! And then Robb, a good friend of mine, his aunt wrote the music for it. And it turns out he was there that night with his wife. I didn't happen to see them. And then another friend (Myrna) was there last night too. I did get to visit with her for a bit.  She and her husband Todd are good friends of mine also.  Funny! I always think it is so fun to visit with friends. They are the best.

Kind of fun

So when I was busy running to all corners of the temple last night, I happened to see Alan Osmond and his wife. He is the oldest of the performing Osmond brothers. I have never met him in person. In fact, I think I have only met Marie once. Just kind of fun to meet them in person.

Anyway I actually talked to them for a little bit and told them how amazing the Osmond/Motab concert was on July 26 up at the conference center. He thanked me very graciously. It was very fun to meet him. I also told him later (I saw them again) that Lisa is in my ward. So it was fun to have those subjects to talk about. I totally forgot to tell him that I also know John Whittaker. Lots of connections.

Just a nice man. And his wife is very sweet also. I kind of worry about him. He looked a little tired. But you can also tell he is a strong person. They both are. The Osmonds are a great example.

I was very impressed with how nice they were. The picture I have on here is from the year 2000.

Just thinking

I look at some peoples' blogs and realize that my thoughts are extremely random and odd at times. Why can't I be a writer with a vast knowledge of how to put words together in an amazing way? Oh well. Take me or leave me. ; )

Today is Wednesday. I have really been enjoying the Olympics. Summer Bejing 2008! I watch these athletes and I feel like I could be pushing myself so much more physically...but instead I just do what is necessary...or maybe not as much as is necessary (hmm) and not that I will ever be an olympian...but I could try harder. These athletes do motivate me though. And want me to try harder. Michael Phelps is AMAZING! A human dolphin! Making short work of each swimming race. Wow! I am in awe! And the synchronized divers! Just so much to be amazed about! I worship these athletes! 

Lori is a Witch!!!!!!

Well hopefully not normally....but yesterday I did play a witch for The Princess Festival at the Hatfield's farm. Watch this video, it talks about their whole reason for this festival...

http://videos.heraldextra.com/p/video?id=2053181

They had this event at their farm this last week and it's for such an amazing cause! They adopted a little village in Africa and are constantly raising funds for it.

I volunteered to help yesterday and had no idea I would be cast as a witch for two sessions of the event. A blond witch no less! So I don't have a photo of me as a witch and no I did not draw this nor did I look for a look-a-like of me...at least I hope I didn't find a drawing that looks like me! Well maybe when I am not wearing makeup and my eye hurts...

I had to hone my non-acting skills. And I think I frightened a few of the kids when I asked if I could put some of their toes in my brew...

eight eight oh eight

Wow- today is August 8, the month is the 8th month, and the year is 08! I wonder what fun things will happen today...other than the Olympics start! Love watching them!

So have a happy eight eight oh eight!

It is almost Friday! ...and iphones are multiplying...

And technically it is my Friday today! Every other Friday, I get off cuz i work 9 hour days/9 days in a row (excluding weekends) so that lets me have every other Friday off! How fun! Love it! A 3 day weekend every other weekend is so great!!!

So I am finding that I now know of 5 friends of mine who have iphones! What a fun epidemic. I just loaded a piano game on mine and a bowling game. Very fun! Like a miniature Wii that I can carry around.

Happy one day early Friday!

Sketching in meetings...

Just a little sketch I did in a meeting during work...I have to be sketching in meetings at work...it keeps me awake. This style kind of reminds me of Trina Schart Hyman. Though her technique is better than mine. But I love her wispy detailed style. I want to illustrate a book someday in this style! I think it would be so much fun.

High School Musical On Stage....at the Capitol Theater

Yes I got tickets with a friend to the touring High School Musical On Stage up in SLC today. A friend of a friend has season tickets but could not make it. But WE made it. It was a lot of fun! We had front row center seats! Woohoo! I have never had that good of seats for anything!  I was thinking of my little friends Jessica and Ashley while I was there. They are my friends Mark and Christine's little girls and they LOVE High School Musical. So I went in honor of them.

Here is a photo of the stage front...I didn't take it...but instead swiped the image from the internet. Right about where you see the big letter S and I (in the word MUSICAL), that is about where we were sitting. So fun. We could look down just before the stage and see the orchestra playing too.