obligatory pictures

We took Liam to the zoo on Monday.  We've been wanting to forever, and I thought we better do it before it gets cold and we have another baby and I never want to leave the house again, etc.  Slice and I were definitely more excited about it than Liam was.

I think the favorites were the monkeys and elephants ... lots of construction and NO BUTTERFLY HOUSE??  LAME.

Anyway, good times all around.  I just think I have the cutest kid in the world.

As we rural dwellers do, we made the most of the trip.  Siegfried's for lunch, RCWilley for a kitchen table, Provo Canyon for a photo shoot, Sprint kiosk in the mall for a new phone plan.  It's exhausting, but we've got to do it.

In other news, Slice has switched his schedule so he won't have to work Thanksgiving or Christmas.  For the first time ever, we can make plans for Thanksgiving!  (With no guarantees though - I'm due two weeks later.)  Hopefully we'll get to see some family this year.

Jane

Slice and I spent a wonderful (if somewhat stressful) weekend on the Wasatch Front with some dear friends and former roommates. Jane married her sweetheart Ivann after a quick turn of events (i.e. moving the date up from SEPTEMBER) - and they pulled it off beautifully!   The sealing was wonderful, and she looked absolutely gorgeous.  I'll be posting lots more pics on the photoblog.

(mostly) sweet distractions

I, Jean, having been practically internet-free for two weeks, nevertheless my house looking like an utter catastrophe hath occurred within it, because of the many diversions I have sought to distract me from the Mortgage Waiting Game, do make an account of the events which have transpired in my absence.

And it came to pass that two weeks ago our dear friends the Farrers traveled from Springville for a short visit. We ate coconut curry (sorry, Liam!) and wontons, went for a golf cart ride, played in Neola, and viewed The House in Question. We also played Blokus many times. (I love that game.)

Two days later we arose early, yea, even before 6:00 a.m., and began our journey to the Mt. Timpanogos temple. And it came to pass that as we drove between Duchesne and Strawberry, we were hit by a very very large elk, which was moving in our direction. We had no time to stop and survey the damage until we were waiting at a traffic light in Orem. And behold, the Lord hath blessed us abundantly, for although we thought the destruction to our vehicle would be great, to our astonishment, the only thing damaged was our right side-view mirror.
And thus we see that miracles happen even in these latter days.

We attended the sealing of Lu & Dustin while my dear Brit watched Liam, and it was truly lovely. Afterward we stayed around the temple grounds and took pictures until it was time to go to the luncheon.

 

(Why are these pics fuzzy in Blogger?)

Then Slice left, and I spent the rest of the day with Brit - reception and drive back to Roosevelt (in the dark)
(I was a bit more anxious than usual) -  we made it.

TBC....

the part of the weekend that made the rest worth it

So my blog is quickly becoming Lu updates.  I'm okay with that!
She's engaged and I am oh so happy for her.

(Check the photoblog sometime soon for more pics.)

Remember how that guy almost called Child Protective Services?
Good times.

UBIC 2010

Last weekend we did it again.  But this year there was a tennis tournament organized by Dann.  Slice played both singles and doubles; I took pictures and cheered him on.
(He didn't win.)

Saturday morning parade, complete with pictures of Sam, Liam slept until the noisy trucks drove past.  Then he was fussy the rest of the time.

That afternoon we had a Class Reunion, which was fun until we got rained out.  Some of us decided to go on a BH reunion cruise next May.  Then we went bowling.

Saturday night was the Patty Loveless concert and grand fireworks at the park.  Liam was asleep again, so Slice and I left our families on the front lawn and ran -RAN- to the same place we always watch the fireworks, only to find that of all our friends who pledged to come to the same spot every year, none of them actually did.
(Doesn't that sound so like second-grade girls?)
At least the baby stayed asleep.

Recap:
tennis
Liam sleeps
cruise
awesome fireworks
Jean runs for the first time in probably a year, and pays for it the next day
no friends

Any suggestions on a cruise?

fresh from the 5-year High School reunion

I've been pondering on this for an embarrassingly long time, so humor me please:

It seems I am a Hit-and-Run person.

What is a "hit-and-run person?"  Why, it's a term I just made up.  You know those people who you went to school with and got to be pretty good friends, but you went separate ways and haven't spoken since Elementary/Middle/High School/Junior year of college?

Yeah, that's me.

I had a lot of really awesome friends in Middle School (that link was for you Leia), and when I moved to Roosevelt I was devastated, to say the least.  But I made some great friends in high school too.  They were mostly boys. 

(Maybe this is the main problem.)

Then I went to college and, as I've said before, I lived with twenty different girls.  I don't think any of them hated me?  I liked all of them!

At the end of my third year I started dating Slice and, as I've said before, the hometown homies shunned me.  

What the?  Is it Slice?  Is it me?  He is pretty antisocial sometimes, but I'm always happy to see or hear from old friends.  Maybe I just don't make enough visible effort.

Anyway.

I'm not bitter anymore, promise. It just makes me wonder if we never really were as good of friends as I thought ... or ... what is everyone else doing that I am not?  

How do you keep old friendships going?

Or do you?

Friends & Family

Over the weekend, Slice and I finally met up with Lu and Dustin over some pizza. It was so fun to catch up (and talk about Asia, of course). Don't you love those friends you can see after months or years and it's like you were never apart?

Friday and Saturday we attended funeral services for my Dad's younger brother, who was killed in an electrical/gas accident in his kitchen almost two weeks ago. His daughter (my cousin) is my age and had a baby the day before I did, his first grandchild. A darling little boy.

The services were sad but nice and quite well-attended, a great tribute to my sweet Uncle. I learned just last night that JetBlue paid for the entire funeral and burial, as well as roundtrip flights for my Aunt's siblings to come from England and Germany (my Aunt is originally from England, also a 10-year JetBlue employee). How awesome is that? Makes me want to fly JetBlue from now on.

Saturday we stopped to see Slice's Grandma in SLC and show off our child. He is certainly blessed with a lot of people who love him.

(So are we.)

Right now

this girl is on her way home. It's about time! I can't wait to see her!


OK, I can, because I'm not going anywhere until I have a baby on the outside of me. Sorry Lu.

Summer, I will miss you.

But I'm so glad we got to say good-bye.

With some Lapoint love,

the best Mexican restaurant I've been to...

the skies, spectacular as always,

Uintah Canyon,

and some pictures cracking me up.

This just might get me through the winter.

Sunday Night

It's hard to say when it all started - everyone has a different perspective. And we've been singing around the piano as a family for as long as I can remember.
But we all know this: every Sunday night around 8:00, between twenty and fifty teenagers (yes, fifty) come to sing at the Eddington home.

Personally, I think it started that fateful day I made Matt sing Sally DeFord's Because He Lives while I played. Our ward choir was working on the piece, and I couldn't get enough of it.
A tradition was born.

Matt and I started putting together groups for musical numbers, quartets and octets, mainly because we kept getting asked to. Then I tried to convince all participants to make it a regular thing, to come sing at my house after the Institute fireside. I was determined to make singing cool in this little town of sports. So I made treats to entice, and encouraged all with undeveloped talents.
(At that point, I was pretty desperate.)

Well, it worked.

And naturally the drama ensued. You can't get a group of high schoolers together without having the relationship problems!
My piano skills improved along with everyone's singing skills; I was immensely pleased. Slice was one of my projects in the beginning (although I was afraid to call and invite him because his mother always answered the phone), and he became the Old Faithful of the group. First to come, last to leave. He says it's because he loved my family so much.

When I left for college, the torch was passed to Matt. His friends came and then Kiana's came, now Emily's and even Braden's come to "Sunday Night Singing." There may have also been a blanket invitation by the bishop at one time or another ...

We've gone from treats to no treats, the old house to the new, a capella hymns to Soft Rain, from Mom or me playing to Kiana, Christmas caroling to firesides, missionary meetings to an entire concert complete with parts of Handel's Messiah. There were even times when my family was out of town and the singers came anyway. One year my dad bought hymnbooks for everyone, and gave them out as Christmas presents.

Over time, we've turned out some pretty good singers!

It gets to be a real pain for the family sometimes, having to clean up before and after, worrying about parking and treats and chairs and dogs and noise and music. Fortunately the neighbors are very understanding. Still, it HAS been quite a sacrifice.

My dad always says sacrifice is giving up one thing for something thing even better.

the post I wanted to write on my b-day

Because my birthday has always coincided with the beginning of a new school year - and because until recently, it conveniently categorized my past into gradeschool years and semesters - school has basically defined my life.
I often think of my past birthdays in the context of the stages of life that accompanied them: finally entering Young Women's, finally getting to date and drive legally, finally knowing where I was sending a missionary to, finally being packed and ready for Europe, finally giving up hopes of any birthday surprises and/or presents.
(That was this year. It took me long enough!)


Five years ago, I fancied myself in the middle of a Senior love triangle. The details are juicy but not really relevant to this post. Looking back, I'm thinking I should have just counted myself lucky and enjoyed the ride while it lasted. I was rather fortunate to have both dashing young men after me. And I did have a lot of fun with it. But still, the uncertainty of it all put me in a constant state of agony. Sleepless, restless, appetite-less (and consequently, weight-less) agony.
I am not the type who enjoys breaking other people's hearts.

So.

Early in August during Sunday night singing the boys - namely Slice, Rob, Matt, Drew, and possibly Niebs - started whispering to each other and giggling about an idea which soon turned into a plan. They would not tell me, or any of the girls, this plan, try as we might to guilt it from them. Little did they know that I KNEW EVERYTHING.

Weeks later I sat in my room, writing in my journal, debating over my own plan of action. The boys were at their "secret party" (a sleepover in my old empty house, which I had known all along) and I wanted to play a prank on them ... but I needed willing female backup, because Matt was WITH those punks. Instead of making a fool of myself, I decided to go to bed early. And bitter.

The next morning I was picked up and whisked away to a farm, where there was a bona fide surprise party waiting for me. Shooting, fire, food, and friends. Someone brought Baked Lay's, knowing that they were my favorite chips. And Drew had even invited some South Jordan friends to this whole-day birthday surprise for me. I couldn't believe it.

Late in the day we ate birthday cake and parted; after dinner and family time, I went to get my gun from Drew's car. He wasn't home. I waited outside until he showed up, we walked to my empty house, and we talked, one of our typical late-night talks. I didn't get home until after midnight. And when I got there, there was a long yellow rose and a Snickers bar on my doorstep.
The next day, a vase of three pink carnations was delivered to my work.

Love triangles. Such messy, fun, exciting, stressful little things.

These are uh...not mine

I am stealing these pictures from Kelsie's blog, I hope you don't mind Kels.

Friday night Cade and Kelsie invited us over for a barbecue and a night of fun! We ate, sumo wrestled, played beach ball volleyball and The Great Dalmuti, possibly the best card game ever. Then they invited us to go boating with them the next morning!
So Saturday we got up early and drove out to Bottle Hollow. The water was great, there were hardly any boats out at first. Slice did some skiing and wakeboarding .... I tried many times but never got up... at least I can hang on to a Water Wienie, right?

Good times! Thanks again, Cade and Kelsie! It was really great to see you!

How I celebrated our first Anniversary

Saturday marked a YEAR since we walked out of the temple, bright-eyed and ecstatic.

And what better way to celebrate than to watch a dear friend be sealed in the same temple on the same day? (The best part is - she picked the date for us in the first place.) None, you say. Well ... the problem was, Slice wasn't able to make it.

He was stuck manning one of the biggest golf tournaments of the year.

SO - I went by myself. Yes I did. I drove out to Salt Lake, watched Shawna get hitched, ate and visited at her luncheon, and drove home. It was totally worth it.

While I sat in the sealing room and waited and watched, I remembered all those late-night conversations we had about our future families. Shawna's a true kindred spirit. We talked about future husbands and family values; beautiful relationships and how being poor is the best thing ever. We sat on our beds and strummed guitars, singing to boys who didn't know what they wanted.

Most of all, we talked about being happy. I love that girl. And I'm so happy to see her so happy.

I'm also glad to be a year into this adventure!

After the luncheon I drove home, despite flash flood warnings for Salt Lake and surrounding counties. As soon as I hit Parley's Canyon I knew why.

It was the most terrifying ride of my life.

We've been needing new tires for months now, planning to buy them at the end of summer. Of course, Utah summers are not usually like LIVING IN A RAINFOREST.

I drove through this storm, the likes of which I have never seen. The roads were rivers - every so often I'd hit a lake, and the tires would search for traction and the car would jerk out of my control. I kept a white-knuckle grip on the wheel as I crept up the mountain, praying that I would make it home alive. I was hydroplaning everywhere.

I thought Parley's was bad, but when I hit Heber the downpour got even worse. My wipers were on full-speed, and I still couldn't see through the windshield. This was all I could see:

(I took a risk by taking one hand off the wheel for pictures, but I knew no one would believe me otherwise. Wipers full-speed!)

From Heber I called my Dad in near-hysteria, hoping he would tell me that the road would get better. I was ready to pull off and spend the night alone in a hotel room, I was so scared. But he seemed to think I would make it all right. So I kept driving - with the stipulation that if he didn't hear from me within an hour, he should send a search party out for me.

Obviously I made it.

Good thing, too, because when I (finally!) got home there were six long-stemmed roses on my pillow that needed to be put in water. I also had to hide this:

under my husband's pillow before he got home. But I did have several hours to do that.

Aren't most young couples supposed to have lots of time but no money?

Looks like we hit middle-age early.

And in case you're wondering...new tires tomorrow!

one year, what a year

Last weekend our "godchild" celebrated her first birthday! We couldn't miss such an important event!
(Especially since the trip was probably the closest thing to an Anniversary Trip we're gonna get...)

We got the whole package in Springville: b-day party, local talent show, RODEO (heck yes!), Thai food, park time, a DI run, and the greatest brick patio ever - complete with 'fuinki' lights. We just might copy and make our own someday.

Sunday we went to dinner with the fab Morgan fam...and Monday Slice played in a Tournament in Provo. Good times all around!

Also, Spanish Fork Canyon is breathtaking this time of year. (At least when it's rained for two weeks straight.)

Thanks for a great time, Farrers! We love you!