The Smell of a Freshly-Mowed Lawn

I love the smell of a freshly-mowed lawn! I also love mowing lawns, but it has been over a year since I've had the opportunity to mow anyone's lawn. So it was very refreshing to get to help Dad mow the lawn today. I couldn't mow the lawn when I lived at Miss Betty's in Natchez because Willie took care of the Routhland grounds, and I couldn't mow the lawn in Illinois because part of my rent money went to pay guys to mow the lawn. So, it's nice to be home where I can help mow the lawn.

Speaking of Natchez, I've been having Natchez nostalgia again--it hits me quite frequently. So I went back and looked at my blog from last year at this time, and a year ago today I was flying home from Natchez for the MHA conference in Salt Lake! :-) That was totally fun--except that Stanley Thayne was there. I didn't make it to the MHA conference this year (it's happening this weekend) because it's in Sacramento and I wasn't sure when I would be home from school. I saw the schedule for this year's conference though, and Stanley Thayne is giving a presentation--of course. Grrrrrr. But it's okay because I bet Stanley Thayne has never been able to take a picture in front of the American Gothic house in Iowa. Next year the conference will be in SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS--woooo hoooo!!! It will be right in my backyard! Dr. Rugh, who is on the MHA board, said that since I'll be living back in the Springfield area she is going to recommend me to be on the local arrangements committee to make hotel reservations and set up tours for everyone who will be flying in. Ha ha ha--I bet Stanley Thayne has never been on the local arrangements committee!! Dr. Daynes (the infamous cake lady) is the acting MHA president. So, I'm going to make some special arrangements just for Stanley Thayne and Dr. Daynes to stay in . . . Springfield, Missouri! Just kidding. Maybe I'll invite Dr. Daynes over to Greg's and my house to eat some CAKE which I will have BAKED! :-) I'm very excited for next year's conference.

Today Dad and I got to go hang out with the Barrett girls while Nate and Lindy went to see Indiana Jones. We had a lot of fun playing and watching "Enchanted." Sidney has become quite the good talker. She knows all of the important words like "treat," "outside," "juice," and "cookie." The girls are excited to see "Uncle Greg" in a couple of weeks when we go to Nauvoo!

My, What Big Feet You Have!

It has been so much fun to be home and to have all of my fun, cute nieces to play with! Little Eliza is quite the comedian and keeps us laughing all day. This morning she found her daddy's shoes and decided that they would go perfectly with her outfit. She discovered that it is a little difficult to walk in shoes that are longer than your legs, but she thought she looked very beautiful in her dad's shoes and wanted to wear them around all day. Her little toothy smile cracks everyone up! She, Sarah, and Joel took off for Washington this afternoon to go visit Grandpa and Grandma Agate, so that should be fun for them.

Lindy and Sidney came over today too, so we all had a lot of fun eating lunch together and playing with all of the toys. Sidney and Eliza are so funny together. They are just the right size for each other, but I think they're finally figuring out that they are a threat to each when it comes to attention and toys :-) Sharing is hard work! They are really cute together though.

Tonight Mom and I are going to have an "American Idol" party and watch our favorite contestant, David Archuletta, hopefully win!!! David is from Murray, Utah, so tonight they're going to broadcast part of the show from Salt Lake City where all of Archuletta's fans are going to congregate to cheer him on. Since the Jazz are out of the playoffs, at least Salt Lake has something else to cheer about :-)

Home Sweet Home

I think that the blog will say that it's Wednesday already, because it's past midnight, but I'll still write as if it is Tuesday--because I haven't gone to bed yet, so it still feels like Tuesday night to me :-) Mom and I made it home last night!!!! We had a fun road trip, but it's always great to arrive at your destination--especially when your destination is your house. We put almost 1,600 miles on the car! I have a bit of catching up to do since I wasn't able to write anything for a few days. On Saturday night Mom and I stayed at the cool Hotel Ottumwa in Ottumwa, Iowa. We were interested in staying there because we had heard about the hotel on the news a few weeks ago when Billy Clinton hosted a campaign rally for Hitlery there, then failed to pay the $9,500.00 bill. The hotel people were understandably upset with the Billary crowd, and Mom and I are upset with them all the time, so we thought we'd stay there. It is a really neat old building!

On Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, then we struck out across Iowa and Nebraska. We took I-80 which, much to my delight, basically follows the Pony Express trail (and kind of the Mormon Trail)! At Camp Floyd this summer, I'll be telling people all about the Pony Express, so Mom was nice enough to stop at all of the forts and Pony Express stations we passed as we made our way west. Our first such stop was Fort Kearny, Nebraska. This place is especially significant because it was from here that Johnston's Army left to head out to the Utah Territory where they set up shop at Camp Floyd. After visiting Fort Kearny we drove to Sidney, Nebraska where we spent the night. Sidney is famous for being the site of Cabela's World Headquarters.

On Monday morning we had breakfast there at the hotel, then we ventured out on the last leg of our journey. Just when you thought I'd left Abraham Lincoln behind for the summer, along comes a mammoth Abe Lincoln statue just outside of Laramie, Wyoming! Random to the max. Of course Mom and I had to stop and take our picture with the very tall Abe Lincoln (though he's not as tall as the one in Charleston!), which was built to commemorate the Lincoln Highway. After taking pictures with the random Lincoln statue, we noticed something hanging down underneath Stryder's bumper. We had hit quite a bump on Saturday going into Ottumwa, so we realized that said hanging piece of bumper must be a result of the nasty bump. We were relatively concerned, so we went to a car place there in Laramie and they took care of it. Luckily it wasn't anything crucial to the functioning of the car, so the car people were able to just saw it off from where it was broken, and we were good to go.

Our next stop was Fort Bridger, Wyoming, near the town of Lyman. It is my new favorite historic site! It is such a neat place. Fort Bridger was built to protect settlers moving west, and the Mormon Church even purchased the fort at one time (but they burned it when Johnston's Army was coming, thus forcing the army to camp in burned-out cabins for the winter--right on!).

The only surviving remnant of the Mormon occupation of the fort is part of the stone wall that they built. We didn't arrive at Fort Bridger until after the park facilities were closed, so we were the only people there--except for some employees who had the hilarious job of riding around on a tractor, shooting prairie dogs. It was kind of nice to have the whole place to ourselves. We then ate dinner at Chick's Cafe in Heber City, and we arrived home last night at about 9:30. It felt great to be home, to see everyone, and to sleep in my own bed again.

This morning when I woke up I got to play and play with little Miss Eliza. We had so much fun! Then, this evening we got to go to Riley's Preschool Graduation program. She did a great job performing all of the songs they had learned. Big Sister Camden even got to participate in the program too! Sidney was a little scared of me at first, but by the end of the evening she was giving me kisses. It's so great to be home to see my adorable nieces again!!

American Gothic

Ha ha ha ha! Don't be confused--this isn't the actual 1930 painting by Grant Wood entitled "American Gothic." It's really Mom and me at the actual American Gothic house from the painting!!!



We took this picture of the original painting last year at the Art Institute of Chicago. It's one of our favorite paintings ever. The funny thing is that it is not a painting of a husband and wife--the lady is Wood's sister, Nan, and the man is modeled after Wood's dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby. So, you may wonder, what was the house modeled after??????

Well, here's the answer:













The house is located in the tiny town of Eldon, Iowa, which is about 15 miles from Ottumwa, Iowa, where Radar from "MASH" is supposed to be from. Mom and I stopped there on our way to Ottumwa where we are spending the night tonight at the historic Hotel Ottumwa. We loved visiting the American Gothic house and trying to take serious pictures of ourselves. We also love Hotel Ottumwa. It's a pretty funny place--very Iowa-ish--but it's a neat historic building, and they've done a good job of restoring it to how it might have looked back in the day. It was built in 1917.

It has been quite the busy and exciting last few days. Greg and I went to the St. Louis Cardinals game on Thursday then we picked Mom up at the airport. Mom and I spent yesterday packing and then today we left Charleston, stopped by Greg's to drop a few things off, and then headed west.

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game"

On Thursday all of my fondest baseball dreams came true, and I was able to go to a St. Louis Cardinals game at Busch Stadium! I am a big Cardinals fan and had always wanted to go to a game, and Greg and I were able to go before we picked Mom up at the airport! It was so exciting. They were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was quite a rainy day, but it was still a lot of fun. We were hoping that after the 5th inning, when they could have canceled it due to rain (while the Cardinals were ahead), they would cancel the rest of the game and the Cards would win it. But, they continued to play through the rain, and the Cards ended up getting beat pretty handily. It was sad, but I'm glad we were there. I've been to Minor League games before, but this was my first Major League baseball game, and I loved it.

We were sitting right above the bullpen, so we got to see the pitchers warming up, and we saw my favorite catcher: Yadier Molina. As a token of our first baseball game together, Greg got me a neat souvenir from the "game-used" store there at the stadium. It is a framed picture of Molina which includes a slice from a bat he used in a game--very cool! It is number 5/250, so it is very exclusive.

"Meet Me in St. Louis"

After the game, Greg and I hung out for a while before picking Mom up at the airport. It was so great to see her! I have missed my family very much.

On Friday we spent the whole day packing, visiting with friends, and trying to get everything ready to move back to Utah. Mom and I did all of Charleston's "must-do's," and ate lunch at Dog and Suds, visited the world's tallest Abraham Lincoln statue, and ate BBQ at the Stovepipe Grill. Mom even got to see the museum exhibit about which she had heard so much :-)

Then Mom and I went to visit the cute Stowell family who was kind enough to adopt me while I've been away at school. They are so much fun, and I will really miss seeing them every week. But luckily we can stay in touch!

Then today, Saturday, Mom and I tried to get everything loaded into the car. That became quite an adventure when Paul Bauman from the ward came by and started trying to pack the car his way! After we finally got on the road, we stopped in Tuscola at Flesor's Candy Kitchen to have our favorite sandwich in the entire world: the Reuben with warm red cabbage on it. It was as good as ever! That is something worth coming from Utah for :-) We then went up to Greg's house to drop some things off, and it was fun to see him, but sad to say goodbye :-( I will miss him very, very, very, very, very much, but luckily I'll get to see him in about three weeks when we take our trip to Nauvoo. After leaving Greg's, Mom and I made a stop in Galesburg, Illinois to see Carl Sandburg's birthplace. It was cool to see that after having seen his house in North Carolina. We didn't know that his and his wife's ashes are buried beneath a rock at his birth home! I guess that he had requested to have his ashes returned to Illinois. Then Mom and I stopped at the American Gothic house and came to Ottumwa. I want to write more, but I am really tired, so I'll elaborate another day :-)

Cardinals Eve

Hooray--tomorrow will be such a great day!!! Mom is flying in to St. Louie AND Greg and I get to go to the St. Louis Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game! The only hitch in tomorrow's plans is that it's supposed to be quite rainy.

Mom and I have decided that we're going to try to head out of town on Saturday, so that means that today I really need to get a lot of stuff done. I did find out that I'm okay on my $4,000 bill--it's not real. The finance office made a mistake and I don't really owe any money for summer tuition. I am signed up for six credit hours of classes--because of my internship--but we got a tuition waiver from our program, so I don't owe any money for tuition. I will, however, have to pay my student fees which bothers me to no end--since I'm not even going to be around to utilize the campus services for which I will be paying fees, but that's okay. I'm just glad I don't have to dish out four grand.

When I got home from Iowa the other day the apartment felt very empty because Aly left for New York while I was gone. She was a really good roommate and I will miss her. Today I need to get a lot of my stuff packed up and take care of some other loose ends. Those of us HA students who are still in town are meeting Dr. Small and Dr. Reid for one last lunch at the Mexican joint, so that should be fun. And then it's back to work here at the apartment for me.

Last night Laurie, Kristen, and I went to Mattoon's new rage: the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. We decided that the entire city of Mattoon was there. They really do have tasty wings, and we were able to watch the Detroit Pistons game while we ate (Laurie, who is from Michigan, is a big Pistons fan). Tonight Laurie is coming over to my place to watch the Utah Jazz game--hooray for the Jazz! It's scary that they have to go back to L. A. for tonight's game, but I think that their trip home boosted their confidence, so hopefully that can carry over into tonight. You could say that the Jazz found some "energy solutions" at the Energy Solutions Center :-)