Good Spring Break Times!

I have been so busy having fun this week that I have not written on my blog for a few days! So, I guess it's about time I catch up. I'm kind of late getting to bed tonight. In fact, when I post this blog, it might even list the date as Saturday, March 15--because it is past midnight--but to me it is still Friday, March 14 because I haven't gone to bed yet. This has been such a fun week!!!!! I am excited to see Greg when I head back to Illinois tomorrow, but I must say, it is very hard to leave home!! My family and I have a lot of fun together, and Camden, Riley, and Sidney are very good at making me smile. Up there in the top picture, you will see Riley (holding "Lammy"), Gramma Taylor, Camden, and Tiffy last Saturday morning after the super fun sleepover. We all still look a little sleepy, but we shore had a great time. In the next picture, you will see Sidney coloring up a storm when the Barretts came over to our house on Sunday evening. The way she crinkles her nose when she smiles is sooooooo cute! Next you will see another cute (but more hairy) baby--one of Grandpa T. and Grandma Cathy's baby goats! Mom, Dad, Rich, and I went over to the T's house on Monday for Family Home Evening, and we got to see the four baby goats who are totally adorable. They were running and jumping all over the place. And finally you will see the picture of Mom and me at Camp Floyd State Park out in Fairfield when we went to meet with the director there about internship possibilities. You can even see my new hairdo in the picture!

Now that you've seen the recap in pictures, here is a more detailed account of the past few days:

On Monday, before we went to FHE at the T's house, Mom let me attend her monthly club luncheon that, this month, was held at the Chef's Table on State Street in Orem. I had never eaten there before, but it is a great place! It has a very nice view out over Provo, and the food there is delicious. I had some really, really, really great Tuscan tomato soup and a delightful steak salad. After going to lunch, we went downtown in Provo and checked out some possible wedding luncheon sites.

On Tuesday, I had to go to the eye doctor for my yearly checkup. Mom went with me, and we made it there on time for my 9:30 a.m. appointment. The eye doctor place had just gotten a new computer system which seemed to have mysteriously done away with all of their old information, so I had to re-fill-out paperwork that they had recorded in their old system. That took me until about 10:00, and then we sat down to wait. We waited and waited, and then when people who came in after us started getting called back to the doc's office, we started to get a little concerned. We asked some people what the deal was, but they said that Dr. Parson was just busy. But, when it got to be 11:00, and with a room full of impatient patients, Mom and I threatened to leave and reschedule my appointment for May. Luckily at that point one of the nurses went looking for my paperwork, and somehow it had been lost in some black hole. They finally found it and took me back to get checked. Everything looked good with my eyes, so Mom and I were in and out of the examination room in about 10 minutes. It's a good thing after waiting an hour and a half! After the eye doctor, we met our good friend Yevon Romney at Brick Oven for a belated birthday lunch. Since I couldn't see very well all afternoon (my eyes were still dilated), I took a little nap. Then, I went and got my hair cut and highlighted--so it is now my favorite blonde color and is a much more spring-ish length. It is a nice change, and it helps me feel like spring is near (even if the weather in Illinois probably won't go along with it). Then while Mom and Dad were at the MTC, I hung out at the house and did some homework.

On Wednesday morning, Mom and I headed over to Camp Floyd State Park to meet with the director there about internship possibilities. He had originally offered me a six-month paid position there, but when we showed up that morning, he said that he was doing some figuring, and he realized that he could only pay me for 20 hrs/week for four months. Grrrrrr. We were a little upset, but as it has turned out, I think it is all for the better. So I will plan on coming home from school in mid-May, then I'll start work at Camp Floyd in June. I'll get to work with kids doing Civil War educational programs, which should be very, very fun. I love Camp Floyd because it's Utah's only real connection with the Civil War, so it combines my two favorite types of history: Mormon and Civil War! My new plan, thanks to the change of plans at Camp Floyd, is to work there for four months, then have Greg come out here in October, at which time we'll get married, and then we'll head back to Illinois, where I will complete the last two required months of work for my internship. Nobody in Illinois wanted to offer me a paid internship for six months, but a couple of places have said they could handle me for two months, so I think that this plan will work out great. Besides, it will be fun to get married in October instead of waiting until December! Also on Wednesday, Mom and I met Greg's mom for dinner at Bajio over in Pleasant Grove, which was very fun. We had a good time chatting and catching up on everything. She'll be moving down to Arizona this weekend to start a new job and be with Greg's dad (who was already in AZ for employment purposes), which she is very excited about.

On Thursday, I got up early and rode with Dad to BYU. It made me feel very nostalgic to be there on campus, and it made me terribly homesick, or I guess you could say schoolsick. I really miss going to school there. It's so pretty surrounded by mountains, and it's comforting to know that you're surrounded by people who share similar beliefs to you--not crazy people like there are at EIU :-) I went to BYU to do some research for the paper I'm writing for Dr. Small's architecture class, and so I got to spend four whole hours at THE MOST WONDERFUL PLACE ON EARTH: the Harold B. Lee Library! I absolutely love that place, and I could seriously live there if they would let me. I've missed spending time amongst its moving shelves, floors and floors of wonderful books, and miles of shelves of periodicals. It was quite heavenly to get to do research there again, and I accomplished quite a lot. I think my paper will turn out splendidly thanks to my BYU research time. After the library, I went and visited one of my favorite BYU professors of all time: Dr. Rugh! We had a lot of fun catching up and planning for when she comes out to EIU next month to be our distinguished guest speaker at the opening of our exhibit. Then, I met Mom over at Jamba Juice, and we went and visited with the BYU catering people about wedding luncheon possibilities. Spring break has been a good time to shop around a bit for the best wedding luncheon deals. Then . . . Mom and I had the best lunch ever! We went to J-Dogs just off of campus and had one of the legendary Polish dogs that Sarah has always raved about. It was as good as she said it would be. I had mine with kraut and "special sauce," and it was sooooo delicious. Mom and I then took Rich to work over in American Fork, and then we drove around looking for old pioneer houses that I could take pictures of for the architecture paper. We found a lot of cool ones, and it was fun to drive around looking for them. Then we went to the Holy Cow Boutique in Pleasant Grove and found some fun things. Mom and I love boutiques! We even ran into one of the receptionist ladies from the eye doctor's office, and she was a little embarrassed to see us after they had lost my charts. We told her that it wasn't her fault :-) That evening Mom, Dad, and I went over to the Barrett's for dinner, which was very, very fun! Lindy made some divine buckwheat crepes and a tasty squash salad, topped off by coconut cream pie. The girls kept us all laughing, and we had a lot of fun running around the house and playing with pretend food.

And finally, today I got some things done around the house, then Mom and I ran a few errands. I had taken my engagement ring to the jeweler's to get resized because it was a tad big, so today I picked it up, and it fits perfectly! Who knew that I wore a size 4.5 ring? Maybe my fingers have gotten skinnier due to the stresses of grad. school. Then the Barretts came over to our house for dinner, and once again we had a lot of fun. Sidney was quite talkative tonight, and she liked doing whatever Camden and Riley were doing. She loves being a big girl! It made me sad to tell them goodbye tonight--even though I know I'll see them in two months. It's still hard though because they are so ridiculously CUTE! I miss them when I'm away, but luckily we can talk on the phone. It will also be sad to say bye to Mom, Dad, and Rich in the morning when I leave, but I guess that after coming this far with school, I must carry on, so I shall. I can be happy thinking that in exactly two months from tomorrow, Greg and I get to go to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game, AND Mom will be flying to St. Louis to then drive back to Utah with me! So, more good times are surely in store.

Home Sweet Home

It's so great to be home for spring break! Sorry it took me a few days to catch up on my blog. I'm usually glued to my computer 24/7 for school, and since I'm on vacation for the time being, I just haven't been at the computer as much :-) My internal clock is a little messed up because I arrived in Utah on Friday and was on mountain standard time for a day and a half before switching to daylight savings time on Saturday night, so now I'm back on what used to be central time--but then when I go back to Illinois I'll be on what used to be eastern time. Very confusing. If Ben Franklin invented daylight savings time to help people be able to get more work done in the evenings before their candles burned out (because there was no electricity yet), and since we don't have to work by candle light anymore, why do we still have daylight savings?

Well, as far as catch up goes, let's start on Friday. I had to wake up at 4:00 on Friday morning (Greg had to get up quite a bit earlier than that to drive down from Sullivan to pick me up!), and Greg took me to the train station in Mattoon to catch the 5:23 a.m. City of New Orleans train (just like in the Willie Nelson song!). That was very nice of Greg to take me--after going on the tour at the train depot and learning about all of the homeless people that hang out there, I didn't really want to leave my car there or be there by myself early in the morning. On the train I sat by a goat farmer from Tennessee named Spencer. He had caught the train in Memphis and was on his way up to Michigan because his father had just passed away. He was really nice. I tried to sleep on the train, but for some reason, even though the City of New Orleans has really cushy seats, I couldn't sleep very well. I realized that I didn't know for sure which airport I was flying home from (Mom had made my travel reservations, and I was so caught up in school, packing, etc., that I hadn't totally paid attention), so I double-checked with Mom on the phone. :-) It's always good to know which airport to go to!! Then when we got to Union Station in Chicago, I took off for the CTA train station. On the way there I passed a Starbuck's, so I stopped for a breakfast sandwich and some hot chocolate. Then I went and caught the train to O'Hare. There was this strange guy on the train that kept asking me questions about Mormons--but luckily he got off after a couple of stops. When I got to O'Hare, I found myself in Terminal 1 (the United Airlines terminal), but I thought I was flying American, so I was trying to figure out how to get to Terminal 3. All of the escalators that connect the terminals were being repaired, so I walked outside for a while, then finally found a train to take me over to Terminal 3. Then, I went to the American kiosk and tried to check-in, but the computer couldn't find me. Luckily when I called Mom, she told me that I was flying Delta, so then I was able to go check-in :-) It was a good flight to SLC, and I was able to sleep for a bit. I love flying in to Utah and seeing the mountains and downtown Salt Lake! When I landed, I went out to the baggage claim area to meet Mom, but she was nowhere to be found. I waited for a few minutes, then tried calling her phone, but there was no answer. After a few minutes, Mom called back and wondered where I was. I said, "I'm standing by the On the Fly Grill." She said, "Okay, I'm walking over there right now." Then, after a minute she said, "Wait, where are you?" Then, we realized that we were in different terminals!! Ha ha ha. I was so confused all day. Luckily we found each other.

It was great to be home and to see everyone! Mom and I stopped at the Barrett's house where Dad was staying with the girls while Nate and Lindy went to a movie. They are soooooooo cute, and I can't believe how big they're getting! Sidney wasn't as scared of me this time as she was when I came home for Christmas break. Maybe since it wasn't all that long ago that I was home, she kind of remembers me. We took the girls over to our house for the much-anticipated sleepover! We had spaghetti o's and played hide and seek, then Lindy and Nate came and picked Sidney up. Then, the rest of us got in our pj's, watched "Hairspray," and went to bed. I went to bed at about 9:00 (it's been a long time since I got to do that!). There were a few instances of needing to go potty, having nightmares, and being anxious for morning during the night, but all-in-all the girls slept really well. We had our traditional sing-along to the "Meet Me in St. Louis" soundtrack in the morning, and then Dad made some tasty pancakes. Then, Mom and I took the girls home, took Rich to work, and went up to Salt Lake to meet Aunt Karalie for lunch at the Left Fork Grill. It was great to see Karalie, and even though she's in the middle of her chemo treatments, she's in very good spirits, and she looks really great. I had some tasty meatloaf for lunch, and then Aunt Karalie recommended that we try some pie--which was really, really delicious. My early day the day before was starting to catch up with me, so I slept all the way home and then for about two-and-a-half hours after we got home. That evening Mom, Dad, and I watched the BYU vs. Pepperdine men's v-ball game, which was great, and I got to hang out with Rich for a while, so it was a super fun day.

On Sunday Mom, Rich, and I went to church (Dad was at the MTC), and it was really fun to see everyone. The ladies in Relief Society were quite excited to see me--especially because they haven't seen me since the engagement. They were a little disappointed when I told them that I wouldn't be getting married until December (because of internship obligations), but they were excited to think that I will be living at home while I do my internship (hopefully at Camp Floyd State Park!) for six months. Then, I took another nap (I'm trying to catch up for the last couple of months), and then the Barretts came over for dinner. The girls liked talking to Greg on the computer with the web cam, and Sidney was making everyone laugh as usual. We played more hide and seek, colored a lot of pictures, and had a great evening. It's so wonderful to have a break! It is the calm before the storm--the storm of putting together a museum exhibit in four weeks with Mr. Riccio in charge and only $2,000 to spend.

Spring Break

As I was reading through the latest Mormon History Association newsletter that Mom sent to me, I was thinking, "Stanley Thayne will probably win the contest for the best graduate student paper again this year, and he'll probably be one of the presenters at the MHA conference in Sacramento this summer." So I was feeling kind of bad, imagining his picture plastered on the front of the next newsletter, but then I realized: there is no reason to feel bad. Because, Stanley Thayne doesn't get a spring break and I do!!!! Ha ha ha. I'm sorry if I'm being mean. It's just that he's my arch nemesis, and I am really excited to have a WEEK-LONG spring break! I love whoever planned the EIU calendar. I'm so excited to go home tomorrow!

Urbaign-Champana

I've been meaning to put this picture up on the blog--this was the scene on Tuesday morning during the freezing rain storm. You can't see out of my apartment window because there is a sheet of ice on it! Luckily the sun came out yesterday and melted things just a little bit. Today is Spring Break Eve! I am sooooooo excited to come home tomorrow and see everybody. Aly left today, so I took her over to the train station this morning. Now I'm just trying to do laundry and things before Relief Society Enrichment Night tonight. I am giving a presentation about the pioneers in celebration of the Relief Society's 166th birthday this month. Hopefully it won't be too boring! Greg is kind enough to come offer me some moral support this evening :-) I practiced the presentation on Aly last night, and she thought it was very interesting. She now loves pioneer women. Patty Sessions, who delivered 3,977 babies, was her favorite.

Yesterday was a long but super fun day. For our Collections Care class, we went up to the University of Illinois to visit the Spurlock Museum. The U of I is located in two cities--Urbana and Champaign, so they call it the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. That's quite a mouthful for a school! We've decided that they should combine the two cities into one and call it Urbaign-Champana just to confuse everybody. The Spurlock Museum was very cool, and the director there showed us some behind-the-scenes collections management stuff. We got to see some pretty interesting and random things. My favorite item we saw was a pair of Inuit shorts made out of fur. :-) After the museum, we went to dinner at this really delicious restaurant called Seven Saints. The food there was delicious, and we all enjoyed being in a "big city" again. I don't know which city I like better--Urbana or Champaign, because you never know which of the two you're in. :-) My favorite part of dinner was the "Black and Bleu" salad I had topped with bleu cheese and sliced ribeye steak. It was divine. We didn't get back until kind of late, but luckily I was able to catch the premiere of the latest "Ghost Hunters" season! It was crazy--they totally found some ghosts at Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia! Well, I've got to go finish up some things and then head to school to work with Dr. Hardeman. I'm so excited to go home tomorrow!

ICE

Today I decided that it's official: I strongly, strongly dislike Illinois winters. Then spring and summer mean tornadoes, and summer is hot and muggy, so maybe fall is the only really good season in this state? I'll get to the weather in a minute, but first I wanted to say that I love Sidney's EIU shout-out! She looks great in her cool "I Love EIU" gear. I also loved all of the fairy princess pictures. Camden, Riley, and Sid are natural-born fairies. And, I loved seeing the little ghost at Magnolia Hill in South Carolina. I wish that Sarah, Joel, Eliza, and Greg could all come out to Utah for spring break! But I am SOOOOOOOOO excited to go home on Friday to see everybody!!! The little girls and I have a big sleepover planned for Friday night. They're my favorite sleepover buddies.

So, the weather. Last night it rained freezing rain all night, which makes it hard to sleep when it sounds like little pebbles are hitting your window, and it was extremely windy. I slept with every blanket I own on my bed, so I was nice and toasty warm, but it sounded so cold and nasty outside. When I woke up this morning, you couldn't really see out the windows of the apartment because there was a thick layer of ice on them. Dr. Small called us and canceled our architecture class due to weather concerns, but unfortunately I still had to head over to school to get things done before Mr. Riccio's class in the afternoon. You'd think that since they're married to each other, if one canceled class the other would follow, but they are very, very different. So I bundled up and went outside to clean Stryder off--and that was no easy job. It was like he had been vacuum sealed in a glass case. There was a solid sheet of ice that literally covered the whole car, and I had to hit the windows pretty hard to get the ice to crack. Once it cracked, it shattered like glass--it was so weird. Then at about 1:00 this afternoon it started to snow, and by the time I left school at about 7:00 p.m., there were probably close to five inches of snow on the ground--with a solid sheet of ice underneath. It took Aly and me a while to clean the car off again tonight when we left school, and then it was raining freezing rain again on the way home, so I couldn't really see out of the windshield because the water would instantly freeze.

Finally we made it home tonight, and I was able to enjoy some delicious chicken noodle soup that Sister Stowell made for me and brought over yesterday evening. She is so nice! We were supposed to have our weekly meeting tonight, but since we were all at school for class this afternoon, and people wanted to drive as little as possible, we had our meeting then. You can tell that things are getting kind of tense because Kristen and Catherine nearly had a smack-down at the meeting. Luckily we all worked things out, but I think everyone is a little grouchy--especially since Mr. Riccio and the Tarble Arts Center keep giving us different instructions about how they want the exhibit to look. I am really pooped tonight, so I'm off to bed. Hopefully it won't be so cold and nasty tomorrow!