Sweethearts Dance

Tonight is Kearns High's Sweethearts Dance. For a daytime activity (an apparent Utah tradition that I never experienced as a teen, and a bit overkill if you ask me....) they went to the Planetarium to watch a movie. They met up with a huge group this evening for dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory, then off to the dance. There's talk of going bowling afterwards. Again, can I say "overkill"?! Anyhow...here's the lovely Stephenie in her dress, along with her date Bryan and her good friends Christin and Dallas along with their dates. Hopefully we'll get a wonderful report tonight when she gets home...

Are You an Oron?

Steph had asked a boy to the Sweetheart's Dance by leaving a trail of Hershey's kisses at his house with the saying, "Now that I've kissed the ground you walk on, will you go to Sweetheart's with me?"
He answered by plastering Oreos all over the car...

and post-it notes...great combination when it's raining outside.

On the windows he drew 2 stick figures and wrote, "you and me having fun".

He also said, "What are you an oron, of course I'll go." I could not for the life of me figure out what the heck an oron was, then it dawned on me that it was a play on "oreos". Duh....

The dance is this Saturday, Valentines Day, perfect timing. It should be lots of fun.

Ya'll Come on and Eat

"Ya'll come on and eat!" This is what Steve's mom would always say when the food was ready. My poor husband, ever since his mother died last April has been pretty deprived of the southern food he grew up on, and unfortunately this California girl just doesn't have it in her. Luckily, as we found out recently, Steph has some southern blood running through her veins. She offered to cook dinner one night when I was at work, and let me tell you, this girl can cook! She made fried chicken, homemade mac 'n cheese and corn muffins. It was DEE-licious! Much better than I ever could've attempted. She must have inherited Grandma Lilly's talent of making good soul food. I wonder if she'll ever try to make chittlins....(if you don't know what those are, you don't want to know!!)

Better Late Than Never

So, I know this may seem like old news by now, but I just hadn't had time this week to write about the inauguration. Since I never write in a journal, and I'm not much of a scrapbooker, I figure I'd better use my blog to at least record my feelings about that day.

I don't want to ramble on, because I know we've all read or heard the commentaries regarding this historic day. So I guess what sums it up best is just that my heart was so full as I watched President Obama's inauguration. First and foremost as an American, but also certainly as the mother of children with an African American heritage. To know that as he grows up, in Alex's mind it will never even be a question as to whether there could ever be a black president. But I certainly will be sure to teach him all that his ancestors endured so that he will know and understand the significance.

My prayers are with President Obama, as he has such a tumultuous road ahead of him. How exciting though, to see how many Americans have so much hope for the good that he will hopefully do. I was impressed with his speech, and how he's also calling on us as a country to do better and be better.

P.S. I think Michelle rocks, she is going to be one classy first lady!!

School Shooting

I got a call from Steph yesterday around noon. Her voice was shaky and she said, "Mom, there was a shooting at school and I don't know where Dad is." Double whammy...worrying about the trauma your 16 year old daughter is experiencing as her school is in "lockdown", and knowing that your husband is, second to the school cop, one of the first people called to help in any potential dangerous situation at the school.

I reassured Steph that he was probably ok, but not likely able to answer his phone at the moment. About 20 minutes later he finally called to tell me he was fine. Turns out that the shooting was a block or two away from the school, still a bad situation, but made me feel better to know it didn't actually happen in the school.

Not surprisingly, it was gang related, and both sides were students at the school. Unfortunately the boy who was shot did not make it, which is horrible not just for the obvious reason that a young life was unnecessarily cut short, but that an entire school is now left feeling sad, scared and vulnerable.

Steph doesn't want to go to school this morning, I don't blame her and I'm not going to force her to go. The students are fearful that the ruthlessness of both parties involved will lead to retaliation. I would think that there will be enough added security at the school that the students should feel safe, but I certainly can't blame them for being nervous.

It just saddens me that our children have to grow up worrying about this sort of thing. And it breaks my heart to speculate that it will be even worse in another 13 years when my little Alex is in high school. My prayers are with both families today, the one who lost their son to prison, and the one who lost their son for the remainder of this life. I also pray that Kearns High will be able to come together and heal quickly, so that my daughter can have some semblance of the carefree teenage years that every kid deserves.

California Dreamin' on Such a Winter's Day

These are some of my favorite pics from our trip to California. After a few months of cold dreariness, it was so refreshing to take Alex outside in my parents backyard and let him explore, enjoying the flowers, orange and lemon trees.

When Steph was a little girl she would cry whenever we were leaving Napa to come back to Utah. She still loves it there and even said she wouldn't mind moving to California for her senior year. Now that's saying something. Not that we'll be moving any time soon, but a girl can dream can't she?!

New Year's Eve Sledding

I'm really lucky that some of my family lives here in Utah and that we can get together on special occasions. We have a New Year's Eve tradition of going sledding (during the day, of course) up American Fork Canyon. Here's Steve doing what he loves, hangin' with the young guys. It cracks me up to see him standing next to my super tall nephews.

Alex getting a taste of sledding for the first time with his cousin Katherine. I promise, he did start out with gloves on, but they kept falling off. Luckily it was a farely warm day. (I use the term 'warm' quite loosely, of course...)

My sister Lorna and I catching some air. Not bad, for a couple of moms, eh?!

Steph all dolled up and ready to go downtown for 'First Night' with some friends.