Cruise News!

Yes, I know. I'm a little behind everyone else. I did post the food, though, and that was very important.

The cruise was the best (and only) vacation I've ever been on. I'm ready to go again.

Mary snapped this photo on the plane as we were leaving SLC. It was cold and snowing in Salt Lake so we were really looking forward to Long Beach!

Now when you look at the four sets of photos I have of the cruise, it amounts to over 1,000 pictures to sift through. And as I'm sifting, I'm seeing a pattern of me. Me and the stage, that is.

Day Two. Austin Powers Disco dance class. I'm front and center. Lori to the right and April next to her. Behind us are Denny (tan shorts) and Jess (chicken legs). But there I am. On stage.

Day Four. On stage with Barry Van Wie, a fiddler from Vegas. Yes, I am playing the cowbell. That, my friends, was fun. However, when he asked my name, I said, "Trulee." He said, "What?" and then I wished I would have said something simple, like Mary, or April, or Lori, or Vicki.

Day Six. Country Line Dance Class. I'm wearing the exact same thing I wore on day two. We recycled on this cruise...unless you were Lori and Jess and actually did laundry while you could have been walking around on a cruise ship eating carrot cake. So there I am. On stage. Again. This time I am joined by Vicki (to the right in the pink), Lori (in brown), and next to her, Jess (the guy with the chicken legs).

My sweet husband managed to record video of the dance classes. IF I can figure out how to post video (Liz??) and IF I get brave enough, you will all have a great laugh.

Some of My Favorite (Cruise) Things

There were a lot of things I loved about our recent cruise to the Mexican Riviera (Puerta Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas). Some of my favorite are here.

Each night, the steward (ours was Linda from Slovakia) would turn down our bed, leave us a caper (tomorrow's activities), two chocolates, and a towel creature. It was a different creature every night.

Another of my favorite things was the food. Not just that it tasted great and you could eat as much as you wanted, but the way it was presented was as enjoyable as eating it. Our headwaitress was Andrea from Romania and her assistant was Nicart from the Phillippines. It was almost sad to say goodbye to them. They were wonderful. On the 2nd and 3rd nights, one of our group asked for the cheese plate as we were being seated. Every night from then on, Andrea had it on the table when we arrived.

Each night we also had "Showtime" during dinner. The servers would stop serving and sing and dance for us. Nicart really got into it and put on a great show.

Cruise details to be continued...

A Scout is....

My Son!



Braxton was presented with his Tenderfoot badge at a court of honor last night. I can't believe I have a son who is on his way to becoming an Eagle scout.


Between now and then, my goal is to teach him how to comb his hair.


Okay- cruise pictures are coming! As soon as I get the laundry done and get caught up with my grad classes!

I Love My Friends

My friends have cameras. Cameras they won't let me touch (see Dec. 21 blog post if you forgot). They took pictures of everything we've done the last two weeks and then, bless their hearts, they blogged about it.

Care to see what we've been up to for the last two weeks? Go check out the Zimmerman's blog, the Howard's blog, and the Jeppsen's blog. Links are to the right.

They could have left out all the pictures of me, but since I was not the one holding the camera, I don't really have a choice.

Jesus Came to our House!

That kind of sounds sacrilegious, doesn't it? It's really not.

Our good friends, the Wood family, stopped by on their way home from Christmas vacation in Utah. Warren and Sharon both teach over in Fallon. I love this family. We all love this family. Ty and Braxton are exactly the same age; Braxton is only two days older. Kilee absolutely worships Aubrey. (She's watching you, Aubs. No pressure.) Ryne is a fantastic young man who is great with the little kids and gets along great with the grown-ups. Here is a recent family picture:
Warren looked a little scruffy when they stopped by. They'd been in the car for about 5 hours and his hair was going in all directions and his mustache was thick. He looked like someone else that we have pictures of in our house and McKay took to calling him Jesus. Each time I would correct McKay and say, "Warren." McKay would repeat "Wawwen" and then he'd turn to Warren and say, "Jesus, come here." Except with McKay it sounded more like "comere." Warren, bless his heart, is nearly 12 years removed from a baby and followed McKay around, held him on his lap, carried him, and in general responded to Jesus.

As far as I'm concerned, Warren may not be Jesus, but he's a great man aspiring to be like Jesus and obviously, McKay knows great spiritual men when he sees them.

And just because sweet Aubrey left this photo on my computer, I'm putting it here for you to see. It was one of my favorites of her senior photos. My favorites are the ones where she has a great big smile - almost a laugh - because that's how I always picture Aubs in my mind.
This photo gives me hope for the future. There are outstanding teenagers out there (with outstanding parents).

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

A few days ago, I was visiting with my sister on the phone while Braxton and I unloaded groceries from the van. Somehow my sister and I were talking about books and she said her son was reading a book by Cynthia Rylant.

"Have you ever heard of her?" Bear asked.

"No," I answered. And then, as an after thought, I turned to BR and asked, "Braxton, do you know who Cynthia Rylant is?"

"She wrote Henry and Mudge." Braxton replied, quite confident. I relayed this information to my sister who said, "Really? Hmm..."

"She also wrote..." and Braxton went on to name a few more books she'd written.

Bear got online and looked her up, and sure enough, Cynthia Rylant wrote the Henry and Mudge books.

"Wow," I said. "My 11-year-old totally knows this author and the books she's written. That's kind of amazing. Where does he get that from?"

Later that same day, my sister and I were on the phone again. We are some of those people who don't need a reason to call, we just call. She was telling me about going to Amy Laughton's house to check on the dog.

"Hey," I interrupted. "I've been meaning to tell you. I was reading some research and one of the resources used in the paper was written by an Amy Laughton. Spelled the same way. What are the chances of that?"

My sister says, "That is kind of interesting. It's not a name you see everyday."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I thought it was an amazing thing."

"No," my sister corrected me. "The amazing thing is that you have an 11-year-old who remembers authors and books they've written . Yet his mother not only reads the research paper, she also reads the sources listed in the paper and remembers them. And you wonder where he gets it from."

Yeah....

So....

I guess Braxton comes by it honestly.

Poor kid.