Senior Night

Dennis took the kids to the last BYU home game of the season on Saturday.  I ended up with a migraine so I couldn't go which left one extra ticket so they invited a friend to go with them.  Turns out it was his birthday that day.  How fun is that!  And BYU won!  Everyone had a great time and they even met the BYU cougar "Cosmo" after the game.  I guess they were quite a ways up in the nosebleed section which was pretty bare, so the girls went down a little closer by the railing and stood to watch.  Bonnie had so much fun sliding down the isle rails and then going back to the top and down again. They all had a great night.

Date Night

Dennis and I were able to go on our belated Valentines day date on Friday the 21st. There were actually 8 of us that went out together. In-laws and their spouses. We had dinner at the Lion House first. I had a nice sundried chicken breast, yams and rice and Dennis had the stuffed chicken breast.  It was yummy!

We walked over to the Conference Center Theater and watched the BYU Contemporary Dance group perform "Encounters."  All of it was very impressive.  I'm always amazed at their physical strength. I especially enjoyed the short music video that they put together called "Inner Child". It expressed joy in so many aspects of regular life; a slumber party, in the elevator, at the grocery store, or park or even at the dinosaur museum. It made me want to dance in the isle and in the elevator and to jump on the bed!! It was so fun! 

As I was watching these talented artists I realized that it was truly beautiful! I felt happy and inspired and filled. In fact, the 13th article of faith came directly into my mind. I am so grateful to have these opportunities. 

(Photo from their website)

(Photo from their website)

 One low of the night however.  As we were leaving the underground parking, we started up the little incline to pull out onto the street and . . . we ran out of gas!!  That is the first time that has ever happened to me. A little embarrassing. We were in luck though, because we had family with and they were nice and brought us some gas.
We went out for ice cream at Leatherby's to end our little date night. Dennis even shared an ice cream with me.  He's come such a long way. He would never have done that when we first got married.  He said it was because I stayed on my side of the glass.
It was a great night!!

14 Year old!

This year Jacob turned 14. He wanted to go somewhere "fancy" so we took him to the Olive Garden.  He thought it was special to have Italian sodas with dinner.  He loved the pasta and took his left-overs home with the intent of enjoying it for lunch the next day.  We picked up a couple of T-shirts and a school belt for him as well as a new basketball.  He also wanted a game for the Xbox and tickets to go see the latest Hobbit movie with a friend.   I think it was a good birthday.

Grandpa and Grandma Marker stayed over night so they could come with us to church on Sunday when Jacob was ordained a teacher. It was a very special day for us all.  Jacob has been looking forward to the next level of his teens and responsibilities in the Teachers quorum. I think it's something about moving on that lets you feel older and more responsible. These are such good milestones.  He is such a good young man!

Divine Nature Personal Progress

I've been working on my personal progress in YW's. I just finished the project for Divine Nature.  I decided that I was going to read 5 autobiographies.  For each book I wrote down any quotes that I liked as well as recorded "My Take Away" from each book.  I have only read 2 autobiographies in my life before this project, so this was very good for me to balance out my reading a bit. 

I found some fabulous books.  I have been making several more additions to my want to read list not that I am done.  I like reading them more than I thought I would.  It's been very uplifting. Here are the books that I read as well as the scrapbook that I am making with a page for each book. 

 1) Left to Tell.  This has been on my to read list for a long time.  I was glad to finally read it. It was probably one of the most inspiring books I have ever read! I am in awe of her strength of spirit, her relationship with God and her resolve to rise as one left to tell the story of forgiveness, love and peace.

2) My Life in France

She is delightful to read! I knew it was going to be a great book for me when she said. " I was 37 years old and still discovering who I was." This was probably my favorite book! I found myself writing down some of her words, because they were lovely!  She was amazing to me.

3) Nothing is Impossible

This book by Christopher Reeve was one that I just pulled off the shelf at the library.  It wasn't my favorite, but it was still pretty good and really made me thing about somethings that I've never even had an opinion about before, such as stem cell research. I liked his definition of Hope.  Optimism+knowledge=Hope.

4) Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel 

His humor was classic! I was amazed at all the recognizable "friends" and acquaintances that he had throughout his life. He was so widely known and popular and yet was somewhat anti social. He was extremely well traveled and educated. He stuck to his standards, even if it wasn't the way "things were done". He did things his way and was a perfectionist and at times oddly insecure. I especially liked hearing the background stories of how his books came to be and some of the little side notes that this book provided and mention of other books that I was unfamiliar with. I didn’t know about.

This biography was, if nothing else. . . thorough. I had a hard time getting through it and found at some point that I was just trying to get to the end. So it was a bit long winded. Amazing though, that they had so much documentation of his life.

 5) My Life - Elizabeth Smart
I wasn't sure I wanted to read this or not. It was very . . disturbing. She definitely "descended below them all" during her horrible 9 months experiencing it all at only 14 years old pure evil! I found it difficult to sleep last night and I think this story will stick with me for a little while. I found myself comparing this book to the one I read first Left to Tell. This one felt a little more detached, and the age difference was obvious.  It was a refining fire story. My favorite quote was from her mother on the night she returned home. She told her:
  "You be happy, Elizabeth.  Just be happy.   If you go and feel sorry for yourself, or if you dwell on what as happened if you hold onto your pain, that is allowing him to steal more of your life away. So don't you do that! Don't you let him! There is no way that he deserves that. Not one more second of your life.  You keep every second for yourself. You keep them  and be happy.  God will take care of the rest."

BONUS BOOK.
I am actually reading another book right now called  "I am Malala"  The story of the girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban. It has already been so educational.  I know nothing about that part of the world.  I'm excited to finish it.

This page was posted on March 27, 2014.

Gateway Children's Museum

On Saturday we got together with some of the other Marker family and had dinner at the Crown Burger in Salt Lake City.  Every time we go there I remember the first date that Dennis and ever went on there and the time when I met his family for the first time.  Ronna asked me what my shoe size was - hinting about my ring size of course. It's a Marker traditional spot.

I had an extra little surprise this time when I happened to run into a friend from college who was in town for a hunting convention with is brother.  So fun to run into people in unexpected places!

We were able to park right across from the Energy Solutions arena because of Dennis' school pass. Kind of nice! We all enjoyed the nice little jont to the gateway from dinner.  Grandpa and Grandma treated us all to going to the museum in loo of Grandma's 60th birthday that is coming up this week.  The children all seemed to have a lot of fun playing together, and I think the dad's were having as much fun as the kids were.  I was sitting there watching Dennis talk to the youngest of the clan, Todd, with my camera ready, so sure that Todd was going give me a big cheesy smile. . . . any moment now . . . unfortunately I think he was just so captivated by watching Dennis' face that he just sat there and stared.

Drayden, Bonnie and William were so fun to follow around and watch.  Pure enjoyment!  The girls all had so much fun playing together as well.  In fact after we got home and we were looking through the pictures, Khora told me that she and Emma didn't even know there was another level to visit. They were just having so much fun where they were.

The two big boys teetered on boredom a couple times, I think, but they adapted by having a game of hide and seek with the other boys.  Toward the end of the night they were having so much fun that they were even enjoying the Construction site just like the little kids.

On the way home that night we played our traditional game of "what was your favorite part".
Bonnie - the sand and the hospital pad with the helicopter
Khora - the farmland and store
Afton - the store and farmland
Isaac - making the track with the pipes for the balls to go down with uncle Kevin
Jacob - the vacuum balls
Me - watching everyone play
Dennis - playing in the water with Bonnie, the climbing wall with Khora and making animations with Afton

Party Plans

This year it was Isaac's turn for a birthday party with friends.  He wanted to go play ball at the gym and come home for cake and ice cream and maybe a movie.  What he really planned was going to be a marathon party, but I had one great consolation to all this. . . .it was easy on my part and the house was clean.  He had around 8 friends come to play ball at the church.  When they were done we had pizza and cake and ice cream.  Some of them stayed to watch Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters.  It was a long day, but Isaac had a lot of fun.

I think the older the boys get the easier it is to have a party for them.  It's much less entertaining them on my part and more of them entertaining themselves, which is as it should be right!  Isaac planned it all and pretty much put it all together himself.  It's kind of typical Isaac.

What is the best part of being 12?

"I get to go on more camp outs with scouts."

We are so glad that he is in our family.  He is a very strong individual and loves animals, fishing and all things ball related. He is self motivated, works until it's done and is a leader.  He has lots of friends and is a very clean and tidy person - it's a positive thing, it's a positive thing.

Acceptance Letter

It came in my inbox yesterday.

AnaLee,
Congratulations! It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted to Utah Valley University, beginning 2014 FALL academic term. We are delighted to welcome you to the UVU family. 

I applied in December just missing the spring deadline by a matter of days. I'm anxious to get going now that I've made the choice but starting this fall I will be working towards a bachelors degree in art visual communications . . . graphic design.  Lots of art classes including photography (yea!) and . . . (gulp) . . drawing!  (sigh)

And the most exciting was that my credits and degree from Snow College - about a hundred years ago - transferred beautifully.  I will enter as a junior and only need one math class!  Hooray!!  I thought I had to take two accu-placer tests. . . in English and Math . . . and I was dreading it!  Its the over 20 equivalent of the ACT or SAT test.  In fact I procrastinated . . . and it payed off because apparently I don't need them as a transfer student. Hallelujah!

I'm nervous and excited and a little intimidated to be entering this field among these younger naturally artistic kids at this point in my life.  One of the young women at church today looked at me and said "you are going to school?"  Bless her young little 12 year old heart!  ;)  Yes I am.  Heaven help me!!