Goings On

Oh, how I looked forward to the lazy days of summer. I imagined my summer to be vast expanses of unstructured leisure with perhaps an occasional swimming lesson to break things up a little. As it turns out, the relaxing summer I fantasized about was, indeed, only a fantasy. It has been non-stop lessons and visitors and other such activities.

Has it been fun?

Of course.

Has it felt a little nuts?

Of course.

Here's what's been happening in the last little bit.

The Hatch's came to town a couple of weeks ago. (My camera has malfunctioned so pictures are nonexistent.) Despite the lack of photographic evidence, we had a really great time. The girls love the uncles and idolize Aunt Tiffany. (I had my hair highlighted, and Kate's comment was, "Now you look like Aunt Tiffany!" It was the highest compliment in her mind.) The visit went by much too quickly for us. Paul and Ruth have stayed on for another few weeks.

I appeared in an infomercial last week. My neighbor is a film maker who does the occasional infomercial (Little Giant, anyone? That was him.). He recruited me to be a runner in a scene. All I had to do was run by a woman and say, "Wow! I love your nails!" and then point and admire. It was rather silly, especially because the way I had to run, then grab her hand, then point to the nail decal (that's what the infomercial was for) was absolutely not the way I would naturally move at all. We had to do it a bunch of times so that the camera could take full body shots, then face shots, then hand shots. So, when you see a "Nailtastic!" infomercial on TV when you are suffering from insomnia one night, look for me. The best part of this whole tale is that the director, my neighbor, specified that I was to wear "modest running shorts" which made me laugh inside because I think that's an oxymoron. My motto is, "The shorter the shorts, the faster the race." I wound up having to purchase some shorts, so I'm pretty sure that even though I was paid for my time, once I subtract out the cost of my new running gear I netted 6 or 8 dollars.

I gave a solo recital last Thursday. This was a huge deal for me. I memorized the song- it was the first song I have memorized since high school. Kate told me, "Your song is so long that when you play it I can read TWO BOOKS!"

This is Elaine. She is kind of my idol.

The recital went well- I invited Elaine, the in-laws, my mom, and friends from the neighborhood. I was really, REALLY nervous but I think I did well. I didn't have any memory problems and that was what I was the most nervous about. I have promised myself that I will tape the performance and put it on the blog, but I'm actually pretty sick of the song so I'm giving myself a little break from it. The best part of the night was feeling surrounded and supported by people who believed that I was doing my best.

My nephew was baptized on Saturday. With the girls dressed up, the daisies in bloom, and a few extra minutes, I managed to get a few pics of us looking decent.

At the tabernacle.

Lindsay and Preston.

It was a great day.

The Shelton kids stayed for the night while their parents went AWOL.

Whitney kills me.

She's a serious kid. We played at the pool, then all the kids slept over at Grandma's, we braved church, then they played on Grandpa Jack's zipline and petted his horse.

Last night we took dinner up AF canyon with Bruce's mom and dad.

It was beautiful. I've had to resuscitate my old Olympus so my pics aren't the greatest, but we had a good time.

As crazy as things have been, they are about to get crazier.

More on that later.