Finally a post!

Merry Christmas!

I have been completely overwhelmed with work lately. My life has been off balance and I don't like it. We planned to go to St. George for Christmas but with everything I had going, we couldn't go. I have taken off working yesterday and today, which is why I have time to blog. Tom has been trying to help me out by assembling sets of plans, submitting plans and picking up plans from the City, and preparing Primary schedules, directories, booklets, and lists. We also managed to send out 75 personal Christmas cards and 65 business Christmas cards. I have enjoyed received Christmas cards back. They are my favorite Christmas decoration. I have them hanging above the windows in my office and in the kitchen and above the book shelves in the living room. Thanks to anyone who sent us Christmas cards!
It has been 2 months since I last blogged. Since then, I saw the movie Twilight. It was a "B" grade movie of a book I love. So, I didn't hate the movie but it didn't increase my love of the book either. I blame it on the directors. I liked the actors but I felt like the directors were not experienced film makers. They didn't know how to capture the emotion of Bella and Edward on screen. I knew the emotion from reading the books but for someone who had never read the books I would think it would be boring or even confusing. With that said, I would still love to see the movie again!

I have also been reading to unwind at night. I printed a book list off a friends blog ("The books the Shelfari staff loved") and I have been selecting books off that list as well as some recommendations from friends. I have read "Eat, Pray, Love" (from Shelfari list), "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" (recommendation by Cher Rowbotham), and "The Martian Child" (recommendation by my aunt Nancy). I just finished "Eat, Pray, Love" last night. It reads like a diary. Elizabeth Gilbert is a great writer. I like her candid, honest style. I don't necessarily agree with everything she does, but I found it interesting. My friend, Eva, recommended that I join "Goodreads" to share good books. I never thought I would consider joining anything that has to do with books but this actually sounds interesting.

OK, that's enough of being on the computer for my day off! I'm going to go shopping now!

Halloween

I hope you had a Happy Halloween!Becky and I after buying our Halloween costumes while in St. George.Halloween flowers from Joanne & my dad. Aren't they beautiful? I took off the jack-o-lantern face and now they are Thanksgiving flowers.

River decided to be a spider for Halloween. It's amazing that the cob webs stayed up the whole time. I covered all of our book shelves and windows in cob webs for Halloween. I loved it. So, did River, as you can see.

Tom & I heading out to Sarah & Kip's party as a Flapper & Gangster.

Tom dressed up as a ghost, thanks to me and a roll of toilet paper, at Sarah & Kip's party.

I believe in inspiration...

Have you ever felt like you were meant to do something? Like the pieces of the puzzle just fit together at the right time? I have and I believe that it is inspired from above. I met Al Rounds this weekend and had the rare opportunity to hear his story about how he was inspired to paint. Meeting him reaffirmed my belief that God inspires and guides us. I believe that Al Rounds was meant to paint to inspire others through his paintings.

Before we even knew who Al Rounds was, Tom and I were mesmerized by the beauty, truth, and spirit of his paintings. Because Al uses watercolors, nothing can be hidden. "It's a nightmare to paint with watercolors," says Al. Few have mastered watercolor as well as Al Rounds. This is how Al Rounds started using watercolors:

"After graduating from the University of Utah in 1977, Rounds decided to pursue a full-time career as a painter immediately, despite all the warnings he had received from various acquaintances that he would never be able to earn a decent living. His wife calculated that her husband would have to sell three or four paintings a day to make it financially. At the time, he was selling his paintings for $25, including the frame, which amounted to a $15 profit. Rounds, who was trained primarily as an oil painter, decided "I couldn't do three paintings a day in oil (they don't dry fast enough, for one thing). I tried. I started doing watercolors just because I could sit on location and do two or three day. At night I'd go home and work on oils. I did watercolors so I could make a living. But the more I did, the better I got, and I started enjoying it. I started doing things with watercolors that hadn't been done before. I experimented with washes and papers. I knew the techniques before I knew the words for them."

When we met Al Rounds this weekend, Tom asked him, "How did you decide to start painting church history?" This was his response:

Inspired by a dream, The Kirtland Temple was the first church history painting Al did. This is also the first of his paintings that appeared on the cover of the Ensign. Tom and I were married at the Kirtland temple. We were drawn to this painting and it hangs over our fireplace.

When Al was in the second grade, one of the girls in the class pointed to Al during Back-to-School night and said to her mom, "That's the artist in the class." That's when Al began to define himself as an artist. This is Al talking about how he became an artist:

Al is so humble and kind. I see him as a famous painter, as a celebrity, and yet, after meeting him this weekend, I feel like I am one of his close friends. I'm proud to say I know Al Rounds. If I ever see him again, I'm sure he will make me feel like we are close friends crossing paths again.

In 2002, Al Rounds was commissioned to paint a commemorative plate that was given to various dignitaries during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City such as the Queen of England and the President of Spain. This is the plate.

If you want to read a great article on Al Rounds, go to:
http://deseretnews.com/article/1%2C5143%2C340008040%2C00.html

Happy Birthday Joanne

Happy Birthday Joanne! You are a great wife to my dad and a great person too. You are so thoughtful and kind. The more I have gotten to know you, the more impressed I am with all of your talents and activities. I am glad you are part of our family. I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

www.pandora.com

The majority of my days are spent in front of my computer working. While I work, I like to listen to music when I can. I recently got a great recommendation for a music website that Id like to pass it on. The website is www.pandora.com It is a customized radio station that creates a playlist based on an artist you like. You type in the artist's name and pandora does the rest. You can also put in a group of artists and pandora will shuffle through songs that match those types of sounds. My favorite artists lately on pandora are Cyndi Lauper, Sarah McLachlan, and Jewel. Happy listening!

Bunco Babes

I am officially part of a Bunco group that call themselves the "Bunco Babes". I have been playing Bunco with this group almost every month for about a year. My friend, Gretchen Walters, got me into playing Bunco with this group. They are a mismatched group of suburban women that live in and around Corona. Their backgrounds, families, jobs, religions, and past times all vary the spectrum but they are all a blast to be around and every month they call to ask me to play I cant help but go.

I looked Bunco up on Wikipedia and if you are wondering what Bunco is, here is the history...

"According to the World Bunco Association, Bunco began as a progressive dice game in England, later being imported to the American West as a gambling activity. It was not until after the Civil War that it evolved to a popular parlor game. In recent years, the game has seen a resurgence in popularity in America, particularly among suburban women. As it is played today, Bunco is a social dice game involving 100% luck and no skill (there are no decisions to be made), scoring and a simple set of rules. Women who are part of a Bunco club take turns as the Bunco hostess, providing snacks, refreshments and the tables to set up the games. The hostess may also provide a door prize. Small amounts of money can be involved as well. The object of the game is to accumulate points and to roll certain combinations. The winners get prizes (provided by the hostess or pooled from the club resources) for accomplishments such as the highest score, the lowest score, or the most buncos.

Tomorrow's Bunco night!

Tom and Trains

For Tom's birthday we went on an adventure to watch trains. We drove up Lytle Creek, watched trains and ate lunch on the Mormon Rocks, drove up to Silverwood Lake and caught a few more great views of trains, and then watched trains again in Hesperia. The weather was great! It finally feels like fall. The air was cool and the sun was out. It was especially nice to be outside because I have been so busy with work that I have been locked in my office. I forget how much Mormon history we have so close. Here's a little history background of Lytle Creek and the Mormon Rocks:

"In 1851, Brigham Young dispatched three companies of Saints to form a colony in the San Bernardino Valley. On June 20, 1851, his men crossed Cajon Pass. They sought shelter under the gray overhangs and caves of the enormous abutments of what was later named the Mormon Rocks, which today bracket Highway 138. Eventually the troops set up camp in a beautiful grove of sycamores at the mouth of an impasing dark canyon. They explored the area as far west as Cucamonga Creek, looking for a suitable site for their colony. Captain Andrew Lytle was one of the commanding officers. Lytle's company fished and hunted along the abundant creek that flowed past their camp, and now bears his name. A few of the men remained to establish the colony of San Bernardino."

"Mormon rocks were formed by the overlapping of two mountain ranges. This overlapping is due to the grinding and clashing of continental (tectonic) plates in the Earth's crust, producing earthquake and other seismic activity along the San Andreas Fault line. The rock formations give an appearance of light fudge where bubbles burst and left thousands of holes."

Taking shelter in the caves of the Mormon Rocks like the early Saints did.Look! A train!Silverwood Lake on a beautiful day. There is a plaque here about the Mormons too.More trains! Yeah!Eating lunch on top of Mormon Rocks, keeping a look out for trains.

There's another train!

This was a great train spotting location on the way up to Silverwood Lake. Just look at all of the other men who thought so too.