Memories...

I was just catching up on family/friends/and those I don't know blogs on google reader. Yes, if I find a blog I like, I put you in my google reader to forever know what is going on in your world. Do I lead a sad life, mabye? But most of the time, I get a good laugh reading other people's fun commentary on their lives.

I was reading a friend from high school, Chris Hoskin's blog, and she was writing about her daughter participating in an area dance festival this past weekend. It brought up some fun memories, so I thought I'd share.

When I was a mia maid (14-15 years old), our stake participated in a dance festival. It was held at the then mini-dome in Pocatello, Idaho. We practiced for months on two dances that we had to do - we would practice with our ward and then with the stake. Definitely, the stake practices were more fun because after growing up with the same 5-6 boys that were our age through primary and youth, they always felt more like brothers and we chased the boys in the other wards. Anyway, we were all paired up and learning these dances.

As much as I can remember, one of them was a spanish dance. Not only did we have to learn these new dances, we had to have costumes made to perform in them. I remember either the girls or boys had a silver sash around their waist that was about 6-8 feet long. I remember when our sweet leaders were getting ready to sew these costumes, they couldn't figure out why the sashes had to be so long and so being thrifty mormon women, they figured they could save a lot of time and money by just making these sashes to fit around our waists instead of the way the pattern recommended it. They were so proud of themselves for saving money on the fabric, because it was some silvery stuff that wasn't cheap. So we practiced and practiced and finally, the day arrived for our all day rehearsal and then final performance in front of millions of people (not quite, but when you are 14/15, it seemed like that many!)

Once we get there, we discovered that the reason the sashes were so long was because it was part of the dance (a part they hadn't taught us yet!) to unroll it and have the girl on one end and the boy on one end and we would put them up in the air and all around and it was supposed to look so cool with so many of us doing this at the dance festival!

Except for poor little old Moreland 4th Ward, instead of having these beautiful long sashes, we had small, short, little silvery sashes that maybe only the people on the first row could see! I remember being disheartened by this because when you are a teenager, who wants to look different? We coped fairly well, I'm sure the leaders' had a panic attack after realizing what they did. The organizers, upon realizing that our sashes didn't fit the projected image, stuck us in a corner and had us still perform the dance with everyone else. I'm sure that looked goofy!

Looking back in it, it just makes me laugh, thinking of how funny it is now. At the time, not so funny. Time does change everything, doesn't it? But now it is really funny as an adult looking back. It makes for a great memory though and also some retrospection.

I do have to say that maybe that was a premonition of how my life would turn out. Sometimes because of miscommunication, sometimes because of thinking I know better than everyone else, including Heavenly Father, sometimes just because I think there is a better way than what really should happen or JUST BECAUSE :) I still end up like that 14 year old girl with the small sash and everyone else has the long one!

As heard from my little man

Morgan's favorite saying is "Oh Man!"... whenever something doesn't go his way or he is mad or disappointed or sad... All I hear is "Oh Man!" every time. Makes me laugh - don't know where he heard it from but it is darn cute.

January 2009

It's April

Here is a quote I just found, love it!

"It is our job to lift others up, not to size them up."

Neal A Maxwell

I just noticed on Deseret Book that there is a new book, "The Neal A Maxwell Quote Book - Illustrated Edition". I may have to get me one of those, they look beautiful. Of course, I may have to wait until it comes out in a soft-cover edition - it's more in my price range.

Also, Happy Birthday to my brother - Mark. His birthday was yesterday. I thought about you all day.