Old places

James and I went on an adventure this past week.  It involved a house and an awkward conversation with a cute kid and his Mom.

Here is the backstory.  My great grandparents (the Andersons) built a house in Millville on land owned by my great grandpa's father.  The house was finished in time for my great grandma to give birth to my grandma, the only one of their 8 children born in the house.  She was their first daughter after three boys.

I love reading my great grandma's history and her feelings about having a daughter after three boys.  She was so excited and I know she had a special place in her heart for her oldest daughter.

 This is a picture of my grandma, LaRene, with one of her brothers.

My grandparents, shortly before their marriage, 1957?

The house as it looked when my grandma was young.

 And...

The house today! 

 I wasn't sure if it was the same house because it looked so different from the picture.  My grandma told me where the house was located and so James and I paid the owners a call.  When we knocked on the door I was still nervous about the prospect of talking to complete strangers about the history of their house.  A little boy answered the door and when we asked if his parents were home he replied that his Dad was at work and his Mom was in the tub.  We weren't sure about the truth behind these statements so we asked if we could talk to his Mom.  He left and we stayed on the porch.  

A few minutes later he reappeared with his Mom, whose hair was wet, she really was in the tub!  (I felt so bad because she was also pregnant...)  We introduced ourselves and explained our connection to the house.  I showed her some of the pictures of the old house and the family.  She was really nice and she gave us her number so my Grandma could talk to her about the house.   It was kind of scary to talk to a complete stranger about her house but I'm glad we did it!

Recently

James and I had a fun weekend.  We went to the temple with James' cousin Jed and his wife Missy. Then we ate homemade chile verde and chocolate caramel cookies.  After dinner we trekked to the water lab so that James could work on his thesis project.  I don't mind hanging out while James does his work and he prefers to not be alone in the lab.

 I took this picture as James was preparing to run his samples in the LCM. 

A funny story about margarine:

As you will notice there are THREE containers in our fridge.  How does that happen?  We purchased the second tub and somehow it vanished from our fridge shortly after.  Our fridge is not that big so we were perplexed, how did it vanish?  We both figured it never made it in the car (some how) so we bought another tub the next time we went to the grocery store.  Imagine my surprise when I opened the fridge a week after and lo and behold, the OTHER TUB.  It was weird.  

If our fridge is some kind of portal, I want to know where it goes so we can save on gasoline.  It's almost as good as teleportation.

November in a nutshell

What a month!  

I defended my Plan B report, all 106 pages of it

The green square is my defense on the seminar room schedule

My printed report (for some reason the picture looks like it was at night)

 Later that day I narrated the Relief Society Thanksgiving dinner.  The cultural hall looked amazing!

I was grateful that when the needle shattered after hitting the pin that it didn't hit me in the eye.

The (almost deadly) pin

 Over the Thanksgiving weekend my brother Alex gave his farewell address.  He did a wonderful job.  We had a bunch of people over afterwards:

 After the crowd left we took some pictures as a family.  It will probably look different in two years!

The soon to be missionary:

 After that Hil and her family got ready to head back to Vegas.  We had some fun before they left though.

Ave with her grammy

 James and I helped my parents get the house ready for Christmas.  We figure that since we don't have a tree at our place, helping someone else put up a tree fills our quota.  Right?

And one last, random, picture.  This is prop storage at Utah State.  It looks like the room of requirements...

Did I mention that I have three sets of renderings to finish and then I'll be done?  I can't believe I'm so close to being done.  I'm very excited!

Kind of morbid but it's October...

First up, a picture of the cutest girl in the world in her dress.  It fit!  The picture is a little blurry but you get the idea.

 During fall break we went exploring around Cache valley.  We drove to Millville and visited the park.  At first I wasn't as thrilled about playing but it was really fun.

  James loves his domes...

We drove down through the other towns until the road stopped being paved.  We figured that if we kept driving we could have wound up in Morgan. (Actually we would have wound up in Huntsville.  Tomato, tomato.)

We stopped by the cemetary in Millville on our way home.  My great-great-grandparents:

And my great-grandparents.  They were some of my favorite people.  I wish James could have met them.

 On Sunday we continued on with the creepy cemetery tours and drove out to Newton.  My great-grandma Keller (Grandma great) grew up there.  This is her parent's headstone:

It was fun to explore the valley and the leaves were so pretty.  But apparently not pretty enough to deserve a picture or two.

We're doing well, more of the same.  On of my friends is pregnant...with TWINS.  It's intense.  I'm not sure if I could handle something like that. (Knock on wood.)

Proof Production Photos!

Here are the production photos for Proof.  They are in show order so if you look at the pictures, you've seen the show.  It was a great last production to design and I'm very proud of my work.  If you would like to see the renderings as well, click on my portfolio button or just click here.

Set design: Milinda Weeks

Lighting Design: Bruce Duerden

Costume Design: Lindsay Beardall

Directed by Adrianne Moore

Cast: Felicia Stehmeier as Catherine, Kent Hadfield as Robert, Nikki Baum as Claire and Adam Earl as Hal.

 We enjoyed a wonderful dinner tonight with James' friends, the Eraslans.  They are a Swiss family from Winterthur he met on his mission.  We're lucky they have been coming to visit every year.  Some time soon we hope to return the favor.

Weddings, Rainbows and Weird Sculptures

So far the weekends in October have been intense in a good way.  Lots of stuff to do and people to see.  This Saturday we went to Salt Lake for my friend Kim's wedding.  I met Kim in Buffalo when she was investigating the church.  I was in the right place at the right time, I guess.

The happy couple leaving the temple

I don't know what was happening with my camera phone.  Oh wait, it's a camera phone...

 It's starting to cool down in Logan.  It's been rainy and overcast.  This past week we had not one but TWO rainbows by the canyon.

I joked with James that we should go to the water lab to pick up the pot of gold.  He didn't laugh.  The water lab is where James does his research and it's located near the mouth of the canyon.

The actual sign for the Chuck-A-Rama on 4th South.  Awesome.

 As we were walking in to Chuck-A-Rama I noticed a gigantic bird house but I didn't think much of it (probably because I was hungry.)  Afterwards I saw a sign on the fence in the parking lot that almost made me gasp.  GILGAL GARDEN.  It's one of those local placed I've wanted to visit but never got around to it.  Lucky for me, James is really obliging so we drove around the corner (we didn't realize it was so close) and spent a few minutes in the garden.

James and the Joseph Smith Sphinx.  I don't think James was excited.

Me and the statue of Child

 It was a weird place but sort of cool.  I'm glad I was able to finally visit it.  Thanks James!




One more thing: I handed in my final draft of my Plan B Report (thesis) on Friday.  It was 85 pages long!  Granted, there are a lot of pictures.

The first week of school AND Def Leppard? Too much to handle!

James and I went to the fantastic Def Leppard concert last night at USANA. It was so incredible! I never really thought much of Def Leppard before I started dating James but now I'm hooked! They won't replace Bowie though (notice my shirt: Ziggy Stardust.)

Heart opened with a pretty good set. We got there late because we ate dinner before because we thought there would be another band opening for Heart. Not so much. It was just the two bands.

I took the pictures with my cell phone so they aren't that great, at all. The Wilson sisters really rocked it even though Ann looked kind of terrible:

Her outfit was totally unflattering and just a weird mismatch of textures. I kind of wish her sister (who looked great) would have said something. Maybe they were in a fight...

Anyway, Def Leppard came on and they were AMAZING! Their set had tall screens that showed video of coordinating images for each song. It was really cool.

There was also a couple of levels and ramps around the stage.

This picture is of Rick Allen, their drummer, who only has one arm. And he still rocks.

This last one wasn't taken at the USANA concert, it was in Atlanta. I just wanted to show a clear shot of the set up. Also, our show was extra special because Phil (shirtless guitar guy) and Joe (blonde guy singing) both wore sparkly shoes. Viv (dark haired guitar guy) must not have received the sparkly memo.

Set list: Undefeated, Let's Get Rocked, Animal, Foolin', Love Bites, Rock On, Rocket, Two Steps Behind, Bringing On the Heartache, Swich 625, Hysteria, Armageddon it, Photograph, Pour Some Sugar On Me and Rock of Ages.

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.