Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

It was fun to hang out for a little bit on Tuesday with Sarah and Mer. We missed you Katie! It's always sad to say goodbye, but it's so great to know that it's not forever. Who knows when or where, but I know we'll be together again sooner than later! I hope you can all visit us while we're in Minneapolis, or maybe we'll meet up somewhere else. I love you girls so much! Provo has so many memories which will always be fun to remember. Stay in touch and keep blogging! This is the first new post in forever!

Harry Potter

So, I am a newly-found Harry Potter addict. I read book #1 a few years ago, but last week at the library I picked up book #4. Corwin wanted to see the movie, but I had heard it was dark, so I never wanted to see it. I figured that reading it first would prepare me to see the movie. 740 pages later, I am ready to see the movie. I must say, though, that this book freaked me out. Is this really a kids' book?! I could barely sleep last night because Lord Voldemort had come back to life and was out to get Harry (and me, mind you). I think JK Rowling is brilliant, and I already have book #5 checked out so I can devour it this week.

A 'Baby' Baby Grand Piano!

How cool is this? I could buy a baby grand piano for Lucas! It's only $150 from babystyle.com. Not bad compared to probably $40-50,000 for the Steinway baby grand I want!! But I don't know how I feel about Lucas getting a grand piano before me... How cute though that it comes in black or white! He would be just like Linus. Now if I could just find $150 laying around, wouldn't that be nice?!

So did Katie or Sarah hear about the supercell that hit Provo on Tuesday? I of course heard the thunder and rain and Lucas got soaking wet playing in a puddle out front, but I had no idea how hard it hit until my mom called later that night and told me to turn on the news. It looked like a hurricane had come through. The winds at the Provo airport were 90 mph! The benefit of all the rain though was it was absolutely gorgeous yesterday. It cooled the temperatures down to the upper 80s, it was sunny and blue skies and the air was so clear. During our heat wave before the thunderstorm, the air was so dirty and gross. I love that change in the air quality after it rains.

I'm excited to see Sarah next week- Katie I wish you were closer! And Meredith, hopefully we can tear you away from your Arabic for at least an afternoon to do something fun with Sarah! :D Love you girls!

Coat!

I found this adorable coat at Paul Frank today. Should I buy??? It's on hold until close tomorrow. Let me know what you think. Love you girls!

Wedding Pictures

Serena helping Karina get ready

Karina and Karl before the ceremony

Bishop Vanderdoes, Charlie, Daniel (brother), Manoj (friend), Ron (brother)

My dad escorting Karina

During the ceremony
(we're all kind of crying because Charlie's uncle was talking about Charlie's dad who passed away about 5 years ago)

Dancing!!!

The Wedding and more

It's Thursday and I'm still feeling exhausted from everything that happened over the last week! First we had the Clyde Reunion (for all descendants of my dad's maternal grandparents) which was jam packed with activities every day starting last Friday, the 21st. We didn't participate in everything because that would have been nearly impossible but we did participate in these things: lunch at the ATK Thiokol Rocket Park; swimming in Brigham City; dinner at Maddox; Ogden Dinosaur Park; the main reunion event at the Uintah park which included a catered lunch, a small program about the Clyde's, water balloon volleyball, kickball and family pictures; a half hour fireworks display at my parent's house; Hogle Zoo and another lunch at my dad's cousin's house.

Interspersed between all of those events, we just had a lot of fun hanging out with all of my siblings. Can you believe there were 26 people sleeping in my parent's house through it all?! We also spent a lot of time helping Karina finish up all of the details for her wedding. We helped her find wedding shoes, attach straps to her dress, made her a veil, made all of the boutonnieres, corsages and centerpieces, made programs, attached captions to all of the pictures in her two photo books (which took like 2 hours!!!) and more... Probably the biggest issue we ran into occurred on the actual wedding day. Zeke and Pei went to the florist to pick up Karina's wedding bouquet. From the beginning Karina wanted her bouquet to be a collection of everyone's favorite flower. Well, when Zeke and Pei got there, the bouquet was not ready and it turned out that the florist had basically decided not to order it!!! And they acted like it wasn't their fault!!! So they tried putting something together which ended up being a dozen red roses and four little white flowers. Hello- does that sound like an assortment? Karina wanted cala lilies and gerber daisies and maybe a few roses. And it made Zeke and Pei really late getting to Snowbasin. Luckily we had a lot of extra wildflowers that we had bought for the centerpieces and Monika and I rearranged it to be what Karina wanted.

The ceremony started at 11 am and was really beautiful. First we (as bridesmaids) were escorted in by the groomsmen. Then my niece Michelle carried in the rings on the ring pillows. And then Ming and Lucas came in as the flower boys. They were hilarious!!! Ming was chucking the rose petals and Lucas dumped his basket out right away and then tried putting them back in. Everyone was dying laughing. I can't wait to see that on the video. Then Karina was escorted in by my dad and she looked absolutely beautiful! My parent's bishop performed the ceremony. First there was a reading by Charlie's uncle Steve who is Bahai, then my parent's both said something, then I played a piano piece by Rachmaninoff. Then there were the actual vows. After the ceremony, we did some family and group pictures and then there was the lunch which was tasty Indian food. There was also the cutting of the cake, a toast by Charlie's brothers and also Monika and there was some dancing. Lucas was hilarious! All he wanted to do was dance. That will be fun to watch on the video also. We left Snowbasin around 3:30.

That evening we had a reception from 6-8 at my parent's house so pretty much as soon as we got home we had to start preparing the house for the reception. It was pretty non stop action which is why I'm exhausted! And sadly my camera is really awful so I didn't take any pictures, but as soon as I get some, I will send them out. It was a fantastic day and if you want any more details or if I confused you about anything, let me know.

Also, for some good news, we got an apartment in Minneapolis!!! It's a 2-bedroom townhome. It's only available starting September 1st though, so now it looks like Zeke might fly out early to make it to orientation and my parents and I will leave around Aug. 29th. It is such a blessing to have an apartment because the day before they called us with the apartment, they had pretty much said "it's not looking good. you should look elsewhere." Another blessing is we changed rental trucks to Penske which was cheaper than Budget and we can pick it up here in Provo instead of driving down to Cedar City.

Okay, I've written for long enough. I love you girls!!! I want to read some blogs from you girls too.

34 is my favorite number

Today was an especially great Sunday. Sacrament Meeting and Relief Society were all about our pioneer heritage and the trials and struggles they went through, and after seeing the new Joseph Smith movie again recently, it was really powerful. In Sacrament Meeting there were 8 musical pieces and narration between each. There was a trio (2 flutes and a violion) accompanied by the piano doing "The First Vision," a male solo doing a medley of Missionary hymns, the choir singing "Come, Come Ye Saints" and "They, The Builders of the Nation", a small group singing "True To the Faith", along with many congregational hymns. And the narration was a collection of inspiring pioneer stories. And Relief Society carried on with more great stuff (Wilford Woodruff Lesson #14). What miracles and struggles they experienced.

After church, I went on an interesting trip down Memory Lane. As you know, I am definitely a collector of anything and everything. I used to keep every ticket stub, brochure, napkin, coaster, you name it, from everywhere that I went. I am trying to consolidate my collection though and keep the best of the best to remember my childhood. I was going through things that I have saved from India, Germany and Jordan. Things like a book I wrote in the 4th grade called "The Missing Emerald" to my daily journal in the 5th grade, my report cards from 5th-9th grade to barf bags with notes from friends while on sports trips when I lived in Jordan. I even have all of my old passports, including a most embarassing picture when I used to wear those big, pink plastic glasses. Did you girls ever see that one? It's a classic. It was a lot of fun looking through everything.

Then in the evening I went to a baby shower for a friend from Brussels, continuing down Memory Lane. I had no idea how many people I knew would be there! And Sarah, I talked to Brother and Sister Herway so they know you're coming. They're great and will definitely help you out with whatever you need in Brussels.

This Tuesday I'm off to my parents' house since the reunion and wedding festivities will be starting up soon. Did I tell everyone I found the cutest khaki linen suit for Lucas to wear? He's going to be a 'flower girl' for the wedding along with Ming- I'm way excited.

34 days until Minneapolis!

I'm in!!

Hey ladies! I've finally gotten my act together and taken the time to figure this out. That means I'm not doing my Arabic homework right now, but with 12 hours a day between class and homework, I can take a little break, right?!

I just wrote an entire page about me and my family in Arabic. I'm so proud of myself. It only took me an hour and a half (!), but considering that three weeks ago I didn't even know how to say, let alone write, the alphabet I think that's pretty good.

Brad was looking online for engineering positions yesterday just to get a head start on the job hunt and found a great one for a graduate who will be ready to start working in 2007. It totally fit the bill and the best part . . . it's in Adelaide! So who's going to come visit us in Australia? :)

The Countdown Begins

38 days encounting... (that's for you Meredith)

I'm getting anxious for the move and have started a countdown! Having moved often all of my life, when a move starts getting close, I start to commence shutdown mode for my current life and seem to endlessly dwell on the excitement and adventures of a new home and place to live. In some ways, this is definitely a fault because there are many wonderful things to enjoy here and it always seem that after I move, I spend a good amount of time missing my old home and all of the familiarity because with a new home come a lot of adjustments.

Some things I am definitely going to miss are all of our friends here (especially you Mer), the mountains, BYU, knowing my way around, grilled cheese sandwiches at Leatherby's, the Bombay House, the Provo River Trail, being so close to so many temples, the beautiful summers, the fantastic snowboarding in the winter, being close to southern Utah though we haven't taken advantage while we have lived here, and the list could go on and on.

There are so many memories here: freshman year - rooming with Mer and hanging out with Sarah, LeAnne and Katie which led to sophomore year - good ol' BDA #25. And of course that ward led me to Zekey Poo, Zekey Poo, won't you be my Zekey Poo? Giddyup, giddyup, giddyup Woooooooooh, my Zekey pooo! Zeke and I went to the Mount Timpanogos Temple last week and we sat in the same spot in the Celestial Room where we waited right before we got married. That was special to be there together, especially since we'll be celebrating our 4th Anniversary on the 30th! Crazy. Provo is also where our crazy 2-year old was born. Every time I pass the hospital, I remember the craziness of being on bedrest and a C-section, but that's always followed by a greater feeling of love and happiness for Lucas. I just used crazy 3 times... And after spending 8 months away living in Connecticut, we returned wanting to enjoy ourselves as much as possible and I think we have so far.

But, like I said at the beginning, I've started to shut down a little. So I guess all I'm trying to say is I'm trying to enjoy it here as much as possible up until the day that we leave, because I know I'm going to miss it as soon as we leave, but I'm also still super excited about Minneapolis and the U of M!!!

The outfit options

Okay, I didn't realize how to add the fotos before. Here they are!

Outfit help

Hi girls, I want your help deciding on my outfit for Karina's wedding. Attached are pictures of 2 different shoes, the skirt and the shirt. The skirt is the only given. I have a choice on the shoes and shirt and any future accessories. For the shoes, the slides really are a light green, the flash makes them look more white. Let me know what you think!

Thank Heaven for Humble Men

I had to chuckle to myself this morning when I found that CG (who folded the clothes the other day) hung the green towels in the maroon bathroom (creating a cheery Christmas feel), and the purple towels in the green bathroom. I love him even more for his conserted efforts at helping around the house, even if that means that our bathrooms have no color scheme and our child is occasionally dressed like a mis-matched clown.

Decisions, Decisions

It has been a crazy week. I really feel like the heat is on to make some major decisions - does it ever stop? It's come time to decide where I am going to end up and I'm just realizing I have some commitment issues -- not with relationships -- with jobs! Life up until now has been full of endings - of semesters, summer jobs, internships, missions, etc. It's just hard to feel like I'm choosing a place and job where I'll be "locked in" for some unknown period of time. I just feel like life is ready to come down like a big swooping net to catch a butterfly and keep it in a jar. And we all know the fate of a butterfly in a jar....

Great News!

I just talked to Karina a little while ago and such exciting news! Her and Charlie have decided to get married here in Utah the end of July and she's also pregnant!!! She is due at the end of November. It's very exciting-- so I thought I'd pass along the excitement.

Also, I know Meredith has seen it, but Katie and Sarah, if you haven't seen "Memoirs of a Geisha", I would HIGHLY recommend it!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Mem'ries.... Scattered Pictures!

Practicing our reply for Zeke's homecoming question :)

Remember -- us and the Elms boys?

Ben Dick Arms

Hi girls! I'm blogging!!!! How exciting is this?! I've never written a blog before... So thanks to Sarah for setting this up. So only the four of us can write and view, right?! Or am I publishing to the world? I'm on the, top of the world, looking down on creation... Great song. It is crazy to think where we all are right now, but I'm so glad we're still the Fab Four! It's great to chat on gmail too. So Zeke and I were just outside playing badminton! It is a fun game and it's so nice to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather. And we've got a lot of roses blooming too. I love flowers! And it's great to know we get to pick and enjoy them just for ourselves!!! Anyway, this will be a fun way to stay in touch even more. And I love pictures, so send lots! Here's one of Lucas the other night playing in my shoes. He LOVES shoes right now and has to pick out the ones that he wants to wear or he throws a tantrum- silly kid. I love you girls!!!

25, 25, 25 is still alive

Hey ladies. Can you believe that within a few short years we are miles apart and living totally different lives? You are the best friends ever, and I am so thankful for the way you continue to influence and bless my life.

Let's definitely keep in touch. Bloggers forever! :)

25 Still Alive!

Welcome to the first post of the fab four: Katie, Kendra, Meredith and Sarah. Blogs are great. An easy way to keep up with each other, post pictures, and anything else we want to. I'm excited to be blogging buddies with you girls!