Happy Pioneer Day!

Because it's July 24th, I'm going to start this entry with a photograph of my great-great Grandpa Keller. Joseph X. Keller was born in Switzerland and came to the United States with his widowed mother and two of his sisters. They didn't have to walk across the plains because the railroad had already been built. He served two missions in Switzerland, married a Swiss born girl (Mary Frankhauser) with whom he had six children and then he tragically died in 1905 at Stake Conference. Mary was a widow for 51 years! Did I mention she was PREGNANT with her last child when her husband died suddenly? It's amazing.His second youngest son was my great-grandpa Mitt. Joseph's only daughter was named Hazel and her daughter was named Dorothy who was my friend. She died this week, unfortunately. I'm grateful for the time that James and I were able to know her and her sweet husband.

I spend part of this week at home, working on my thesis/Plan B report. It's been slow going but I only have one more section to finish before I can submit a draft to my committee. I guess it's kind of nice that it has drawings and photographs instead of just looking like this:

Depressing.

I took some breaks and tried some tutorials I had watched a while ago. You can see them here and here. They worked. Sort of.

We saw a deer near our house as we were driving home. I think it's kind of funny that we've seen deer at both places we've lived.
Even though our anniversary is two weeks away, James surprised me with this beauty:

It's a food dehydrator. Words cannot express the excitement I feel about this machine. I've wanted one for a really long time. James knew about this and he realized that we had a ridiculous amount of bananas from two consecutive weeks of Bountiful Baskets. I have such a wonderful husband. Case in point: I was at the theatre all day and when he texted me about the dehydrator I texted back to suggest drying bananas into banana chips. His response? Already in.

He's the best!

What else happened recently? We finished our good bye quilt for our boss Amanda:

We used the same fabric in the quilt that Amanda used in a lot of her shows and then we wrote messages on plain white fabric:
My friend Courtney took pictures at the park when we presented it to Amanda. You can see them on her blog.

Ten years???

The past few weeks have been spent in more than a few different ways. James and I had our 10 year high school reunion the same weekend. Thankfully they were on different days. As I was driving I thought the sky looked so pretty I took a picture.

I got a picture with two of my high school friends, Becky and Kristin. We were pretty tight. I actually saw them a couple of times last summer because Becky took our amazing wedding pictures and Kristin came to some of the festivities.Me and James

Kristin and Jim

I've also been working on the wardrobe crew at the Lyric Theatre. I was hungry so I went over to Great Harvest and saw this funny sign. It's true.

I've also been working on "stuff" for the shows including this bodice, over skirt and skirt costume for Amadeus. It's not done in the picture and I didn't take a picture of it after I finished. Cartridge pleating kind of hurts your fingers.

I also made two coats for the Emperor in Amadeus. I didn't get a shot of the finished product, it's missing the cuffs which really finish the whole thing off. I also made a gold coat with a different pattern but similar idea.During "Little Shop" I have a costume assist where I help Audrey put on her sweater. This is what I see while I wait. Kind of scary.
My friend/boss/mentor/big sister/shop manager, Amanda, is moving to Wisconsin in less than a month. She and her husband blessed their baby this weekend. Kamee and I played costume shop mice and finished Amanda's dress for her. She was really stressed out and we thought, "Hey! We can follow a pattern!" So we left it on her porch. We are all going to miss this great family, a lot.

The one where my brother got married, old toys were found and I got closer to 30...

I realized that it has been almost a month since I last blogged. That is sort of crazy because it's not like I haven't had things to write about or pictures to post. A lot of stuff has happened. Let the spewing begin....

Jordan married Lindsey in the Bountiful Temple on June 18th. The sealing was beautiful and I'm so grateful that so many of the family was able to be there. Afterwards we did the customary pictures by the fountain. I didn't take any of those so you'll have to let this one suffice.
They had their reception at Mom and Dad's cultural hall, just like us. It's so convenient to have our parent's house so close! I liked this shot of right after they cut the cake. I think it sums up Jord and Lindsey:

And my brother, looking ridiculously happy. I'm so glad they found each other, I really like the new Lindsey Keller.Oh, and they had Mid 6 play. I think the drummer is pretty hot.

The week after the wedding was pretty busy because "Little Shop of Horrors" opened and we had a whole week of dress rehearsals and performances. This meant I was gone for most of the day, except for a short dinner break between costume shop work and dressing work at the theatre. I'm lucky enough to have a husband who can cook:
Doesn't that look amazing?!? Most of the toppings were in our Bountiful Basket from the weekend before. I love getting my vegetables on pizza.

Jumping to another subject; does anyone remember Playground Kids? I found the dolls that Hil and I had. I can even remember most of the their names: Laura, Julie? Becky, Tracy, Amy and Lindsey. Granted, after a certain amount of time the manufacturer printed the doll's name on their oversized shoe. I really liked these toys. I used to play with these with my friend Brandi.

Jumping ahead to this past weekend, we went to my parent's house to celebrate the holiday weekend and some birthdays. My Grandpa Arbuckle's birthday is July 2nd but when I was growing up he used to tease me that he was going to change his birthday to the 5th so we would have the same birthday. I like this shot of my maternal grandparents and Parker, even though PJ doesn't look too happy to be there.

Moving right along to today, I went out to dinner with my wonderful in-laws as well as James' sister Candice and her cute son. They came up to visit for the holiday and to wish me an early happy birthday.
My dinner was wonderful and yes, I just turned 8...
Melanie brought a cake she decorated especially for my birthday:
I really married into such a wonderful family! They have been so welcoming and loving. I really am so lucky!

Once it got dark enough, James and I decided to finally use the sparklers my friend Amanda gave us last summer. The fourth isn't the fourth unless you have sparklers.

I figured out that the pictures work better with the flash OFF.
Artistic fun with our sparklers...
James spelled out his name but I only got "Jam," backwards. It's still really cool!

It's supposed to be a star...
Neat squiggles...
Well, I think that about wraps it up! Hopefully I won't be as busy but I sort of doubt it!