27 in 2011

It's not every day that you get to turn 27 in 20-11, so when it happens you might as well celebrate! Although yesterday I was pretty worried all day because poor dad had to have his gallbladder removed. He has been in a lot of pain lately (really on-and-off since his surgery last fall), and he ended up in the ER last weekend. The doctors found some gallstones, so they decided to operate. Hopefully having the gallbladder removed will do the trick. Thankfully the surgery went well, and by yesterday evening I was able to talk with Dad on the phone. He sounded pretty happy to be having some dinner, after not being able to eat anything since Friday or drink anything since Sunday. So the best birthday present of the day was that Dad pulled through and the surgery was a success. Now we just need him to get feeling better!

I had a really nice day yesterday. It all started at work when "the guys"--I work with mostly men, but at least they're nice--took me to lunch. It's so nice to work at a place where the people are not lunch nazis (like Jason Boyd at the Lincoln Home). In the afternoon, we had a group called the "Buick Club" show up at the museum. They are on a Route 66 tour and all drive really cool cars. Here are some of the cars parked in front of the museum. By the end of the day, we'd had 78 visitors in the museum--that has to be some kind of record! It was nice though because it wasn't crazy busy like the Lincoln Home, but it was busy enough that the afternoon went by quickly.

After work, Greg and I went out for a nice dinner at Dublin Pub where we ate our favorite Irish beer battered mushrooms--they are SO good!! We also had some yummy sandwiches for dinner. Then it was miniature golf time. It was the perfect evening outside for some mini golf. Here is Greg taking a big swing :-) It was a pretty tricky mini golf course--one of the holes even had a little pond on it, which of course I hit the ball into. But we had a great time.

After mini golf we headed home to open presents and have ice cream cake and birthday cake ice cream! Greg gave me some cool baseball cards for my birthday--I even pulled a card with a Ryne Sandberg autograph on it from one of the card packs! Doesn't this ice cream cake look delicious? Our only dilemma is, how are we going to eat it all? Luckily we have some friends coming over for a BBQ tomorrow, so maybe they will help us eat it :-) It turned out to be larger than Greg had expected. All-in-all it was a good birthday.

In other news, you may remember our recent adventures with our raccoon-killing neighbor, Dick. Because of the e-mail Dick sent to Greg threatening to come to the funeral home to confront him, and just because Dick was acting so strange (putting his fists in Greg's face in front of the police officers, etc.), Greg filed a temporary "no contact" order against Dick which ended today. Greg and Dick were both asked to show up at court this morning where a judge would decide what the next step should be. Since we hadn't had any problems with Dick since the order was filed a couple of weeks ago, Greg had planned to just drop everything and not ask the judge for an extension of the no contact order (we figured that everything had just kind of blown over). However, Dick's attitude and that of his lawyer prompted the judge to slap a two-year extension onto the no contact order without Greg even asking for it. Dick was really belligerent and told the judge several lies, which didn't help his case. The judge had a copy of the police report in front of him, so when Dick said that Greg was the one who had told him to put out the raccoon poison, the judge didn't buy it. Dick's lawyer claimed that Dick hadn't sent Greg any e-mails, so when Greg produced the threatening e-mail, that didn't look good for Dick either. It was just a bizarre situation, and when all was said and done Dick once again threatened Greg--so now another police report is being filed, and it is just a big mess. The moral of the story is: don't poison raccoons and act all crazy about it.

The Riot

Yesterday Greg and I went down to St. Louis to meet Ryan Theriot (pronounced Terry-o), the starting shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals! It was so much fun. Because of how his name is spelled, he is nicknamed "The Riot." :-) He used to play for the Chicago Cubs, but we're happy that he plays for the Cardinals because he is awesome! He also is not bad-looking (Greg agrees with me on that one) :-) He is a lot smaller in real-life than he looks on TV or even just out on the field playing. He was really nice!

Our main reason for going to the Ryan Theriot autograph signing was to have him sign a jersey we got at the May 30 game at Busch Stadium. It is a game-used jersey from the March 17, 2011 spring training game--so it is green, which makes it pretty unusual. We knew that the only thing that would make the jersey cooler than it was would be if we could get it signed. So we were really excited! All of the people at the store where he was signing autographs were very impressed by the jersey. When we took the jersey up to him to sign, Greg said, "This is one of yours." He looked at it and said, "Why, yes, it is!" So now the jersey is even cooler than it was before. Unfortunately the Cardinals aren't playing very well lately--it doesn't help that poor Albert Pujols broke his arm in the game right after we saw them play against the Royals. He is going to be out for 4-6 weeks, which is not good. But hopefully Ryan Theriot and the rest of the team can get back on track!

Hannibal Adventures

Yesterday Greg and I drove over to Hannibal, Missouri for the day, and we had a great time! Everything in Hannibal is always an adventure, being the birthplace of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Hannibal is Mark Twain's (Sam Clemens') birthplace and is often called "America's Hometown." It truly doesn't get more Americana than Hannibal. To start off the day we went on a fun riverboat cruise on the appropriately named "Mark Twain" Riverboat. Here is a picture of Hannibal's riverfront, which is currently closed due to flooding--you can see the floodgates on the road there. They had to move the riverboat landing upstream a little bit because of the flooding, but luckily the river is receding almost two feet per day.

It was kind of a cloudy day, but it still felt really good out on the water. There was a nice river breeze blowing, and it even got a little cool--unusual for Missouri in June. I love the Mississippi River! It is so big and powerful. I first saw the Mississippi when Mom, Dad, and I drove from St. Louis to Nauvoo in 2001, and I haven't been able to get enough of it since. 2001 was the first time I visited Hannibal too. Since then Mom and I have visited Hannibal several times--one of my favorites was when we stayed at Reagan's Queen Anne Bed & Breakfast. Most recently the whole family had a fun little visit to Hannibal on our way back to Utah (via the St. Louis airport) from Nauvoo in 2008. So it was a lot of fun to be back yesterday!

After the riverboat ride, we had a fun lunch at the River View Cafe. The best part about lunch there is that you do have a really nice view of the river. The food was tasty too. After lunch we went around to a few of the antique shops downtown, and then we tried something new and went on the Haunted Hannibal ghost tour! We didn't see any ghosts, but we did hear some fun/crazy stories as we toured the town. Here is Samuel Clemens' dad's grave at the Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Also in the Mount Olivet Cemetery is the real Injun Joe's grave. You may remember him from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The real Injun Joe was known as a very nice person though, unlike his character in the book. Our ghost tour took us through town and to several small cemeteries. It was a lot of fun and not too scary.

Greg and I were so inspired by our ghost tour that we stopped at one other little cemetery we had seen on our way out to the River View Cafe. It was called the . . . River View Cemetery, and it too had a really nice view of the river. At the River View Cemetery we found Robert E. Lee's grave :-) He was born a little late to be the real Robert E. Lee--I mean, he was obviously real, but not THE Robert E. Lee. So, we had a great day in Hannibal and made it home just in time to see the NBA draft. I was sad that Jimmer Fredette didn't go to the Utah Jazz, but happy for him that he was drafted in the top 10.

The trip to Hannibal was just the beginning of a week of birthday celebrations! :-) Actually, we would have gone next week, closer to my b-day, but Greg has a conference he needs to be at all next week, and his boss' wife is also having a baby, so he'll be pretty busy. At least it makes the birthday celebrations last longer.

In other news, for those of you who receive the Ensign magazine (an LDS publication), if you flip to the "Latter-day Saint Voices" section, you'll see a little article that I wrote. You can also see it online by clicking here and scrolling down to the "Two Cities and a Tender Mercy" article. I still haven't seen the actual magazine article, and unfortunately the illustration is not included online, but I hear that the magazine includes a drawing of someone who is supposed to be me--only they have long hair :-) I wrote the article and sent it to the Ensign five years ago, so it's nice to finally see it in print!

Big River, Big Week

First off, I want to say HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to Dad!!! I am lucky to have the best dad in the entire world! I wish that I could be there with him on this special day, but I'm glad he has the rest of the family there to celebrate together. My dad is a wonderful example to me, and he has taught me many valuable life lessons. One lesson that comes to mind is that even when a horse throws you off, you've got to get right back up into the saddle--otherwise the horse wins. Some of my favorite memories are riding horses with my dad over at Grandpa Taylor's house, and I remember one time in particular I was riding Grandpa's new horse Queen. Something spooked her, and she took off with me holding on for dear life. Dad, riding Prince, was trying to catch up to us. Queen took a turn a little too sharply, slipped, and off I flew. I remember landing on my back--it kind of knocked the wind out of me. But Dad was right there, making sure I was okay and helping me up. Once it was determined that I was all right, Dad asked if I wanted to get back into the saddle. I said, "No way!" But after a little while of thinking about it and remembering that Dad had told me always to get back up into the saddle, I decided to go try riding Queen again. As it turned out, she ended up being one of my favorite horses to ride. More importantly, the lesson stuck with me and has come in handy when life's ups and downs have "knocked me out of the saddle," so to speak. So, thank you, Dad, for all of the valuable things you teach me and for the love and kindness you give to everyone in our family! I am also blessed with wonderful grandpas. Though Grandpa Farnsworth died when I was very young, I still remember playing fire trucks with him, and I know from the stories of his life and the type of life he lived, what a wonderful man he was. And, Grandpa Taylor is still a wonderful example to all of his posterity today. Happy Father's Day, everyone!

And, yesterday was Camden's birthday! I was so sad that we couldn't be there to celebrate, but it sounded like the family had a very fun party. It was funny because Greg and I were at a St. Louis Cardinals game, and right after I talked with Camden on the phone to wish her a Happy Birthday, they played "Happy Birthday" over the loudspeakers at the stadium. :-) I still remember the day Camden was born--I was SO EXCITED to have my first niece! And she has only gotten sweeter ever since she was born. We love you, Cam!

Well, it's been a busy/fun week for us here. On Wednesday evening we went to see our friend Beth Staff perform in the Springfield Muni's "Big River" musical. Beth did such a great job! She is the second person in from the right side (wearing a black dress) in this picture. I have always liked Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn," so it was fun to see it in musical form. Beth was one of the living history volunteers/employees at the Lincoln Home, and she is still one of our very good friends.


On Thursday evening, Greg and I went to another fun Springfield Sliders game. Before the game started, I went down to the dugout and was able to get an autograph from the team manager Danny Cox, who used to be a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was SO NICE! He even shook my hand and chatted with me for a few minutes. The poor Sliders just aren't very good, and they keep losing, but maybe they can win one of these days. The funniest part of the evening was that during the 8th inning, one of the promo people came and asked Greg and me if we would be a part of their "golf contest" in between innings. So, we went down to the field, and we both had to hit a golf ball towards a flag in the middle of left field. Greg's hit went waaay past the flag, and mine didn't travel very far at all, but it was fun anyway, and we both won a free Bloomin' Onion from Outback Steakhouse, so it was all good.

Yesterday my good friend Susan Rugh, one of my BYU professors, and I went to lunch! It was so great to see her!! She was in town for a conference, so we were able to meet up before she had to leave. Since she loves Route 66, we went to Mom's and my favorite Route 66 restaurant in town, Cozy Dog Drive In. Dr. Rugh loved it, and we had a great time catching up on things. She is going to be leaving for Washington, D.C. where she will oversee BYU's Washington Seminar for the next year, so I'm glad we got to meet up before she leaves for that!

Yesterday evening Greg and I went down to St. Louis for the Cardinals vs. Royals game--our favorite game of the year! Greg is a Royals fan, and I'm a Cardinals fan, so it's the one time we're not cheering for the same team. Last year when we went to Kansas City for the game, the Royals won, and the Cardinals had recently lost seven games in a row, so it was time for a Cardinals win.

Since both teams are from Missouri, they did something really cool before the game. They called it "Teams Unite for Joplin." During warm-ups, all the players on both teams were wearing maroon hats with a "J" on them--the hats that the Joplin High School baseball team wears. Then at the beginning of the game, pictured here, they had the Joplin High School baseball team come out on the field and collect the hats from the players. The players signed the hats, and now all of the hats, along with some signed baseballs, bases, and jerseys, are being auctioned off online to raise money to help Joplin rebuild from the horrible tornado that decimated the town. My friends Jim and Michelle who live in Joplin survived the tornado, but they said it's pretty horrible there with all of the destruction. We thought it was cool that both Missouri teams would raise money to help one of their own cities.

Usually when Greg and I go to a game in St. Louis it's either a little too hot or too cold, but last night was a perfect evening for baseball. The Royals hit a home run late in the game, and it looked like the Cards were going to drop their 8th-straight game, but then Matt Holliday hit a home run, and the Cardinals held off the Royals to win 5-4! Greg was sad, but not TOO sad because he also likes the Cardinals. It was a great game and a great evening. It's been a good/busy week.

The Latest

Greg and I had a fun adventure this past weekend. We decided to go to Nauvoo to visit our friends Susan and Harvey Black who are there for a couple of weeks. Susan Black is a celebrity in Nauvoo, so it was pretty tricky to catch up with her, but we did it. It was so nice to see them! Poor Harvey has had some problems with cancer, but they both seemed to be in good spirits despite the circumstances.

We also enjoyed just being there in Nauvoo--it is one of my favorite places. I especially like just looking out over the Mississippi River which is SO wide there--especially right now while it is extra high! The temple, as always, looked beautiful. One of the nice things about living where we do is that we are close enough to drive over to Nauvoo whenever we want to. We had a nice day there.

We've also been enjoying going to the Springfield Sliders' baseball games. They are a Prospect League team made up of current college players who just play on the team for the summer. We went to a game on Saturday night and the weather was really nice, but last night they had a 60-minute rain delay. After the rain cleared, it was a beautiful evening with a beautiful sunset.

The Sliders try hard, but they just aren't very good. As you can see, the score last night in the 4th inning was 14-0 for the Quincy Gems. The final score ended up being 15-1. Poor Sliders. It was a lot of fun anyway.

In other news, our raccoon-killing neighbor Dick got out of jail and now he's after Greg and the officers who arrested him. He sent Greg this weird e-mail saying that he wanted to "finish the meeting" they started and that if Greg didn't contact him, he would just "see him at the funeral home after work." The e-mail ended with, "WE WILL FINISH THE MEETING WE STARTED!" So far he hasn't followed through on his threats, and now the police have advised Greg to file a restraining order against Dick, so it should get interesting. Today our neighbor who had originally fed the raccoons, which were then poisoned, mysteriously had their front porch light "fall off." Dick claims that this neighbor who fed the raccoons should have been arrested, not him for poisoning them. So I wonder who would have caused the raccoon feeder's porch light to fall off? Our neighbors seemed so normal for a year and a half--but now the truth comes out!