Owls and Cows

The last time I kissed my husband I was in Paradise!

No, really, we were in Paradise, UT on our way to Cinnamon Creek Campground (it sounds delicious, I know). It was WAY further than I expected and the roads were unpaved and narrow, so I ended up being 30 minutes late (which is the latest I've ever been to a speech...ever). Good thing YW are so forgiving :)


I had fun with their theme: One With the Lord (or O.W.L.). They gave me this super cute handmade pillow:


We drove though the tiny town of Paradise and saw the most e-la-bor-ate castle/barn ever. Turrets and all - for the horses, we assume. A Kingly breed of sorts for sure.

After Paradise we entered Avon and saw a little sign that said: City of Avon, Home of 306 Friendly People.

And wouldn't you know, the first person we saw in Avon waved to us!

I caught onto the Avon spirit right away and waved enthusiastically to the next person we saw, but he looked sideways at me and scowled. He must be the 307th person. Definitely not numbered among the "friendly."

...Whit wondered if there's anyone who sells Mary Kay in Avon...

There were lots of great things about those little towns - like the tiny baseball diamond with the little league team, and the old fashioned house covered in tiny American flags, and the main street that's obviously being prepared for the big parade this weekend - there were a bunch of roped off sections and chairs from people staking their parade-watching locations...at least four days early, since we saw them on Wednesday and the earliest we'd assume that they'd have the parade is Saturday.

I want to live there.

We had to stop several times on our drive for cows...


Good thing the people of Avon put up handmade signs warning you for the reason of your expected delays...

It says: Cattle Grazing Area.

Whit and I had lots of time to practice our Mooooooing...hoping we weren't communicating anything like, "hey, cow! Come and hit our car!"

Smiles

I picked Whit up from work today and stopped at a red light next to a guy in his car. The guy was on Whit's side and he looked over at us and I smiled at him and we drove on.

We turned a quick left and the guy went straight but then we saw him flip around quickly and race after us, which was kind of weird. We didn't want to drive home and show him where we lived, so I drove through a different neighborhood. When it was absolutely clear that he was indeed following us, I pulled over next to a church (nothing bad happens in front of a church, right?) and he pulled up next to our car.

He asked Whit if I was his girlfriend. When Whit said that I was his wife, the guy looked truly disappointed and said, "I mean no disrespect, but she is a very beautiful lady!" and then he drove off.

I'm pretty sure Whit was flattered.
(So was I).

Bummer

Yesterday Whit and I came home and were pushing each other, trying to race into the bathroom. I got in first, but he tried to squeeze by me and push me out of the way. We both stopped dead as we heard a loud RRRRRRRIIIP – and Whit couldn’t go any further…

The door handle had ripped a hole straight through his pants and exited through the back pocket button hole!

...I guess this means that the door is on my team.

Bike

And I’m off! I’ve got a brand new bike – thanks Challenged Athletes Foundation (and Whit…). We rode around a nearby lake, which, according to Google, is approximately a mile. So I’ve gone 1 mile on my new bike! Way better than the three house lengths for my first try…

We were quite the pair. Me on my tricycle and Whit on his unicycle – I guess that together we made up enough wheels for two bikes…

The Plan

At church we have the most awesome new convert – an 18 or 19-year old boy. Whit and I sat in on his Sunday School class because his teachers were late. I had taught the Mia Maids the Plan of Salvation in the class before, so it was fresh on my mind. (Here it is:)

And so while we waited for his teachers we had him draw the plan of Salvation on the chalkboard. Here his is:

(it goes from left to right and then right to left on the second row)

I love that it's Pac-Man ghosts. The Pac-Man ghost starts out in the pre-mortal existence, symbolizing our spirits in the spirit world, then going through the veil to Earth, then dying and being buried, then entering the Spirit Prison or spirit Paradise (see the palm tree?), then the Pac-Man ghost is on top of the grave (pulling out his body), then it stands before the judge at Judgement (complete with gavel), and then he goes to one of three kingdoms: happy-face Celestial, semi-happy-face Terrestrial, or moderately-somber-face Telestial. Outer Darkness is scowling. If you can’t tell, the end Pac-Man ghost has arms, which means he’s a resurrected being, of course, and is being multiplied by 50 billion (because that's how many people will make it to the Celestial Kingdom...which is false doctrine, but it didn't get erased before the picture).

I love this kid.

"Normal"

I went to the SLC today and had some time before my meeting so I went for a "walk" around the city. I went down this one sidewalk that went downhill just slightly. It was nice to not have to push my wheels every 3 seconds but just let gravity do its thing.

For that brief moment - well, as long as the sidewalk was - I had a tiny remembrance of what if feels like to be moving and normal at the same time. I'm so slow and weak that every push or reach or tug or turn or whatever takes so much effort. But weaving down the sidewalk was a nice reminder of what used to be "normal."

It felt awesome.

Last Day of School

I had my last day of school on Wednesday and my beautiful class gave me a bouquet of daisies! They were squished because I kept squeezing them so tightly - I cried. What awesome kids!

Utah Choice and Entertainment Awards

So Utah had their first annual "Choice and Entertainment Awards" event at the Salt Palace.

It was black-tie and very fancy. Whit and I were special guests. Apparantly, Danny Thompson got the entire idea for the whole event while sitting in the audience of the Ms. Wheelchair Utah pageant last November. He loved my opening speech and how the entire MWU pageant even came about and he thought, if she can get this event started then I can do one, too! This is Whit, me, and Danny here:

It was really well done. They had a whole "celebrity" red carpet walk where people came in and were interviewed and photographed. Don't we look legit?

There were also many celebrities there - David Archuletta, Miss Utah, local and famous actors, like the guy from the Matrix. Sports people including Shawn Bradley. Lots of radio people. TJ Fredette performed. Here I am with his backup dancers - I fit right in...

After the event they interviewed me because the inspiration for this event was my speech at the pageant last fall. It was fun to be interviewed, but I believe all the credit goes to Danny Thompson and his initiatives. Yay for pro-active people!