Baseball and Santa Anna's Leg

It has been a busy week! I returned from Utah last Tuesday, and then Greg and I went up to a Peoria Chiefs baseball game on Wednesday. The Chiefs are one of the Minor League teams for the Chicago Cubs. It was the perfect evening for baseball.


Here is the view from our seats. As you can see, the safety net that keeps people safe from foul balls only covered half of our view--which means we were really only half-safe. Sure enough, one of the Quad City Riverbandits players (they are the St. Louis Cardinals affiliate team) hit a foul ball that nearly took Greg's head off. It was okay though because we ended up getting the ball, and then the player who hit it signed it for us after the game. If he makes it big someday, the ball could be valuable.

On Thursday and Friday of last week, I wrapped up my volunteer work for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and the Lincoln Home so that I would be ready to start my new job at the Illinois State Military Museum today! Here is a picture of the museum--it looks like a castle. I can't seem to get away from castles (the main building at Eastern Illinois University was a castle). I got slammed with a really bad cold this weekend, so I was worried about starting work today, but I made it through all right. I think the job will be really fun!

The Illinois State Military Museum has a surprisingly cool collection of really neat artifacts. They have an amazing collection of actual Civil War flags, most of which were brought back home by Illinois troops who captured the flags. Their most famous artifact, however, is Santa Anna's wooden leg, captured by the 4th Illinois Infantry in the war with Mexico. They snuck up on Santa Anna's camp, and Santa Anna had to leave in a real hurry, so he didn't have time to grab his leg. (His real leg had been blown off by the French in 1838.) Bill, the Curator at the museum, told me today that Mexico keeps asking for the leg to be returned, but that's not going to happen--especially considering what Santa Anna did at the Alamo. So I should get to see and so some pretty interesting things at work.

Also, you may have heard about the horrible tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri last night. The pictures of the damage are just crazy! I was worried because my friends Jim and Michelle (Jim was my first boss in Natchez) now live in Joplin, but I just heard back from Michelle on Facebook today. Thankfully she and Jim are okay, and their house is still standing, so that is good news. Have I mentioned that I really, really hate tornadoes?

Utah: Week 3!

I can't believe how time flies! A lot happened during my third and final week in Utah, and now I am back in Illinois. It seems like I just left for Utah! We did sure have a fun week though. Last Tuesday, May 10, Mom and I had a fun lunch with our friend Yevon at Brick Oven. On Thursday Mom and I had a fun little trip up to Gardner Village where we had lunch and checked out the furniture. And on Friday we had a fun girls (and little guys) lunch at the Blue Lemon. Here are Leo and Ben enjoying the festivities.


Sid and Eliza especially enjoyed their orange soda and green quesadillas! Unfortunately on Friday night I found out that I didn't get the Exhibit Curator job at BYU I had so been hoping for. I was pretty crushed. I had told myself not to get my hopes up, but with the job interview process taking over one month, and with it coming down to just me and one other candidate, it was hard not to start thinking along the lines of if I got the job. It's been hard for me to live so far away from everyone, so I was counting on this as Greg's and my chance to come back to Utah . . . but I guess the timing wasn't quite right. I am still really, really disappointed and sad about it, but there have been some new developments on the job front, which I will explain shortly.

On Saturday we did some house cleaning to get ready for a realtor to come through, and then Mom, Dad, Rich and I had some yummy Thai food at our favorite Thai Village that evening. We had a nice day together on Sunday, and then on Monday Mom and I spent part of the day watching Eliza and Leo while Sarah was teaching. That afternoon we had a little outing to our favorite restaurant, Marley's (at the Timpanogos Harley Davidson shop) and took our picture before having some yummy raspberry frozen custard there. My favorite part about being home was just being able to spend time with my family and go on fun outings together.

Yesterday Mom and Dad took me to the airport, and they got to see Elder Jay E. Jensen, a member of the LDS Quorum of the Seventy and a childhood friend of Dad's, who was with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. I was already in the security line, so I was just watching their exchange, but the next thing I know, Elder Holland is squeezing Dad's face! :-) I asked Mom about it on the phone later, and she said that Elder Jensen said to Elder Holland, "You know Hal Taylor? This is his son, Steve." Elder Holland then said, "Yes," squoze Dad's face and said, "You do look like your dad." So that was kind of a funny encounter Mom and Dad had at the airport. I was really sad to leave my family and Utah, but it's been nice to be back with Greg and the animal children. Lily slept on my head all night last night :-)


Something interesting happened literally right after I landed in Springfield last night. Greg had been talking to his friend who works at the Illinois State Military Museum, and his friend said that they might be needing a new Assistant Curator there. Then while I was in Chicago on my layover, the Curator from the museum called Greg and asked him to have me call him when I got home. So I gave him a call after returning to Springfield and he basically offered me the job on the spot! It's funny to think of all I went through for the BYU job, which didn't work out, and then I didn't even do anything and ended up with this other job. I'm going to go meet with the Curator today and I might start working there next week! It's a pretty cool museum--they even have Santa Anna's wooden leg in their collection, which is kind of interesting. They do a lot of Civil War stuff there, so I think it could be a good fit for me--and it would be some good experience. I'll post details when I find out more.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today was a wonderful Mother's Day!! It was a special treat for me to get to spend Mother's Day with my mom. As I mentioned yesterday, she is the BEST MOM in the whole world!!! We had a nice time at church today and got to see Eliza and the rest of the Primary kids sing some special Mother's Day songs, and they had delicious treats in Relief Society. The Barretts came over for dinner this evening, and the kids all had fun running around and playing together. Here is Mom (aka Grandma) with her two little grandguys Ben and Leo.

And, of course with it being Mother's Day, Mom and I had to take a self-portrait. A lot of people tell me that I look like my mom--and that's the best compliment they could give me!

After dinner and dessert we rounded up all of the kiddos and got a cute Mother's Day portrait with Grandpa and Grandma. Now that's a good-looking crowd!

And here's another good-looking crowd: Mom and Dad with all of their kids. It's nice that we can all be here together. If only we had Greg and Joel here, we could have an entire family picture! Maybe one of these days . . . . But it was a wonderful day today and I am so grateful for my mom and my grandmas. Even though Grandma Taylor passed away years ago, I still have fond memories of her, and she has always been a wonderful example to me. We are also glad to have Grandma Cathy in the family now too! And, I know that my mom is such a great mom because of her mom, Grandma F.T. I have so many special moms to look up to and try to be like. Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Take Me Out to the BYU Game

It's been a fun past few days here in Utah! The weather has been perfect, and I snapped this picture of Mt. Timpanogos when we were on our way to take Rich to work the other day. Isn't it beautiful with the snow?!! It did snow in the valley the first Saturday I was here, which wasn't great, but it's great that Timp still looks so pretty all covered in white. For the past few days, we've been getting Mom and Dad's house ready to sell (they actually did all the work getting it ready already, but we were just spiffing it up for the realtor pictures). If you are in the market to buy a really, really nice house in Orem, you can check it out here--the new pictures will be posted soon. They are moving to a really, really nice condo in American Fork, so it's all quite exciting.

Yesterday evening Dad took me to a BYU baseball game--it was SO MUCH FUN!!! It was the most perfect evening for baseball, and as you can see when you click on this image of the baseball field, it is the most ideal location in which to play baseball that you can possibly imagine.

In the crowd at the game was Vern Law, former pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cy Young Award winner in 1960 when the Pirates won the World Series. He has to be one of the most famous Mormon Major League players! He is the father of Vance Law, the BYU baseball coach. I decided to be brave and ask Vern Law to sign a baseball for me. He was very nice and ended up writing a lot on my baseball. It says: "Pirates 1950-1967 Vern Law Cy Young 1960." What a keepsake!

BYU did really well and ended up beating Seattle University 13-3. BYU just kept hitting home runs! The only thing was, when a BYU player hit a homerun, they would play a tornado siren over the loud speakers--that sound kind of makes my nerves tense up. I guess you can get away with using a tornado siren at a baseball game in the West--it could cause big problems in the Midwest :-) The best part of the game was just spending time with Dad!

Tomorrow is Mother's Day!!!! Happy Mother's Day to all mothers! I know I am a bit biased, but I have the BEST mom in the whole world. I am so grateful for all that she does for our family and for the wonderful example she is of everything that is good. She and I have always been best friends :-) Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Utah: Week 1!

It has been a fun, exciting, and eventful first week here in Utah! The excitement began at the Chicago airport last Tuesday when I walked past Mike Wolfe from the TV show "American Pickers." I had some time to kill, so after buying a soda, I decided to go see if I could find him, and I passed him again! Only this time he was walking really fast. So I inconspicuously turned and followed him. He stopped for a moment at a ticket counter, and then he began sprinting through the airport. He either knew I was following him, or he was in the wrong terminal for his flight. :-)

Once in Utah, I enjoyed spending time with my family--especially going to visit Grandpa Taylor on Wednesday for his 93rd birthday! He is such a wonderful example to all of us who are lucky enough to be in his family. We had a very nice visit with him. On Thursday and Friday I spent time helping my sister Sarah with her cute kiddos Eliza and Leo. Sarah is here for the summer teaching a class at BYU, and her husband Joel is teaching a class out at SIU in Illinois--so he'll be here as soon as his spring class ends. Mom and I also spent time on Thursday and Friday gathering up a cute, professional outfit for my second interview with BYU which took place on Monday. I think it went well, but I won't hear anything until next week--so I'm anxious!

On Saturday, Camden was in a GREAT play! She is a wonderful actress. You can see here here, front-and-center, in the light green dress as one of Cinderella's stepsisters. The play was "Alice in Wonderland," but it had some other fairytale stories mixed into the main storyline. It was quite the intriguing play, and Camden was the best actress on stage!


Then on Sunday we had a fun dinner here with all of the kiddos--the Agates and the Barretts. Here is Mr. Ben, who was just a new baby the last time I saw him, all grown-up with Grandpa! I have such cute nieces and nephews.


Speaking of cute nieces and nephews, today was Leo's big #1 birthday!

Now here's a guy who is happy to be one. He loved all of his presents. Can you guess who gave him the St. Louis Cardinals clothes? :-) He had his main party before I got out here, when his dad was here before heading back to SIU, but we did have some fun celebrations tonight with pizza and cupcakes. It has been so much fun out here so far, and I am looking forward to two more weeks!