Easter Weekend

On Easter Eve Eve, I couldn't sleep. Jill and I had been planning a surprise Easter egg hunt for Josh and Grant on Saturday morning before we watched General Conference. Uncle Craig surprised us Friday night with a sleep-over party while he read our copy of the last Fablehaven book in the series. I had to make quick adjustments in order for the following morning to run smoothly, without questioning from the boys.

So on Saturday morning at 7am I snuck out the door and met Jill in the backyard. It was a rather chilly, windy morning for hiding candy-filled plastic eggs of delight and scattering glittery mounds of sweetness all over the yard. We had to do it quickly before Grant came home from playing raquetball and quietly while Josh and Craig slept. I had one close encounter with Josh when I came back inside but handled the situation professionally...the boy didn't pick up on a thing.

Around 9am, Grant and Jill came over to help us carry a French Toast breakfast back to their apartment. The boys were all confused about why we needed the extra hands but it was all part of our plan. And then they were extra confused when I tried to insist we go out the back door instead of the front door.
A.) It was more convenient to get to the Ensign's apartment and,
2.) It would have perfectly led into the Easter scene in the backyard.
Josh was getting a little frustrated with my persistence but as soon as they stepped outside Jill and I started squeaking, "Look! The Easter Bunny must have come! Oooh...Look at all the candy he left! Look, you each have Easter baskets! Ooh, hurry and get all the candy!!" And man was it worth the sleepless night and the lying just to watch those boys scramble around the yard, picking up candy in the grass and trying to find the hidden eggs.

The Saturday sessions of Conference were fabulous...I think--no, I'm pretty sure. The five of us were in sugar-induced comatose states after gorging through the Easter candy while listening to the speakers. But while I had painful physical feelings I had good, tender feelings in my soul while we listened to the church leaders teach us.

On Sunday, Josh and I drove up with Ashley to Midway where we watched the other two sessions of Conference at the cabin. It was a nice, relaxing Sunday. We made roast beef sandwiches with au jus sauce (or as Josh likes to call it, "Awwww Shoot! sauce") and then prepared mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, and a cream cheese jelly roll for the Easter dinner while we waited for family to come over. Uncle Tim, John, Spencer, and McKell came over from Heber with heaping plates of steaming turkey, aroma-packed casseroles, and mouth-watering salads. Once Anna and Uncle Todd got back from snowboarding in Park City we laid out the meal. It was delicious! We really missed Dana as the mother figure but the boys did a very good job of taking over the kitchen.
All in all it was a wonderful Easter weekend.

Festival of Colors

27 March 2010

Josh, Darcy, Grace, and I drove down to Spanish Fork for the annual Holi Festival of Colors at the Hari Krishna temple. It was kind of amazing. We parked along the road about a mile and a half away from the temple and followed a crowd of clean white t-shirts to the fields around the temple. There were already hundreds of brownish/pinkish people at the site, eagerly throwing color on the rest of us with fresh shirts.

The first thing we did was walk through the gift shop/food court of the temple to the color tent where there were easily a hundred people in the center frantically buying bags of color. They had color baggies of pale blues and greens and also prepackaged fluorescent yellows, oranges, blues, pinks, purples, and greens. Grace marched her little way through and back out again with 15 bags of color. We excitedly divided them up between the four of us and then raced to be the first ones to peg each other with fists of chalk. It was a windy day and the chalk was floating everywhere. It went up our nose, in our ears, in our eyes, layered on our clothes, and caked our exposed skin (and some areas that were not exposed!).

In the center of the field was a stage where at least a thousand people were crowded in front to dance to the music or watch the performers on stage. We walked down to see two little girls in traditional costumes perform a short dance. They were terribly cute!

Then the band set up on stage while we all got ready for the color throwing countdown. We weren't thinking of the ill effects of standing downwind of the crowd. After a brief safety review by the man in charge of the temple, we started the countdown at 20. It took forever. But the band kept getting louder and people were letting out primal screams of eager anticipation and then "One!" and WE ALL THREW COLOR! It was incredible! All these shoots of brilliant color flew up in the air and then a dark brown cloud engulfed everything. We couldn't see the people standing next to us and we certainly couldn't breathe! You could feel it stuff your nostrils and crowd the back of your throat and stick down your throat and in between your throat and your nose. Darcy, Josh, and I came out all brown and Grace came out tan. But it was sincerely, most definitely, absolutely undeniably awe-some!

The Grantis Pantis Open

A few weeks ago we were watching TV at the Ensign's house. Well, I should say that Jill and I were watching TV (What Not to Wear) while the boys suffered through it. At one point, Josh and Grant snuck off the couches and started chatting, building, and giggling. Three commercials later they presented us with the Inaugural Grantis Pantis Open. The boys showcased their 9-hole golf course set up around the living room, spare bedroom, hallway, bathroom, and kitchen. The course was made up of books, PVC pipe, shoes, a rug, bar stools, plastic cups, and empty paper towel rolls.

It was fairly a close game the whole time. Everyone celebrated a hole-in-one...except for the founder, Grant. It really boiled down to the last shot; a rather difficult move from the corner of the kitchen. Josh shocked everyone by putting only a 2 on the 9th hole. It was a spectacular game. Josh came in first with 24 points, Grant with 26, Clarissa with 27, and Jill with 31.

Anne Dillon

Last Tuesday I found out that my dear friend Anne Dillon passed away from bone cancer. Anne was an incredible woman. This is how I met her:

I was serving my mission in Oregon and had just been transferred to downtown Portland with a new companion. We were taking over the area from the Elders so we didn't know anyone or anything about our area. Apparently, years ago the Elders had set up service opportunities once a week doing Meals-On-Wheels for a downtown apartment complex. Anne was in charge of making sure we did our job. Sister Johnson and I missed our first week and Anne filled in for us. We wrote her a thank you note and included a scripture from the Book of Mormon, citing the prophet King Benjamin for his words of truth about serving others. The next time we saw Anne she asked, "So, who is King Benjamin?"

We taught the gospel to her, helped her overcome her misconceptions, showed how the Atonement could help her be at peace with her past, and watched her joy and spiritual light increase as she internalized truth and hope and faith. There was more than one occasion when the impression came that Anne was very loved by and very, very special to Heavenly Father.

Sister Johnson and I were there for her beautiful baptism. Later, Josh and I were able to go to the temple with her. My mom had a chance to come up to Portland and meet her.

Anne has been loved as she served in the Relief Society presidency and participated in Family Home Afternoon with other branch sisters in her apartment building. Anne was also very good at loving others. She would tack pictures on the wall of her closest friends and missionaries. She had a love for Josh as soon as I married him. She treasured the scriptures given to her by my parents who she hadn't met yet. She loved her sons who had disowned her years ago. Anne loved giving. We enjoyed exchanging our favorite fruit teas with each other in letters.

Anne was an accomplished teacher and painter. She taught psychology at the University of Chicago. She sold one of her paintings to a card company. She had another picture published in a magazine.

I won't be able to forget Anne's deep and even-toned voice as she closed all of our phone calls, "I love you, Clarissa."

Last Thursday, through a heavenly tender mercy, I was able to register as a bone marrow donor. And I was able to do it in Anne's honor.

Anne will definitely be missed here but I know that there are others in the Spirit World who have eagerly anticipated her arrival.

Saint Patrick's Day

For our holiday dinner we were joined by the Heiners (Pam and Quinn), the Bergmanns (Clif, Nicole, and Jace), and the Kmetzschs (Cameron, Kate, and Peter). We had soup with cabbage and ham and potatoes, a chicken salad, garlic bread, cream soda, and a carrot/yellow 4-leaf clover cake. I won't even be modest, the cake was my brilliant creation--except for the hole that Clif poked into it.

But the night was made complete with our own local leprechaun. I would wear green everyday if this red-headed cutie could live at my house.

Valentine's Day

We had a blast with the Ensigns over Valentine's Day weekend. Saturday afternoon began with a lovely Italian dinner at our house. We had bruschetta, Caesar salad, and lasagna rolls with tofu. It was excellent! We listened to romantic French music on our record player. I was practically swooning over Josh all during our lunch. For dessert we went to Gloria's on Center Street and indulged in an amazing slice of cake. The experience was complete with a violinist serenading throughout the restaurant. Perfect! We laughed a lot, someone said something very embarrassing, and then we were able to laugh even more throughout the rest of the day. It was a great lunch.
After our dessert, the four of us went to the Provo temple for an endowment session. It was a great way to remember the promises we individually made to our Heavenly Father and to also reflect on the promises and blessings we were given when we were sealed together in the Atlanta temple.

We then went over to Grant and Jill's to paint portraits of our lovers. We watched the Olympics and secretly created our masterpieces. Josh went to the trouble of making a barrier with cereal boxes so I wouldn't see how the painting was turning out. I could tell it was going to be excellent because he made me do a lot of serious posing. (Check out the shading under my chin!) We successfully produced beautiful spouse portraits--and I must say I'm surprised they didn't have mad streaks across them from painting while we were watching intense speed skating races. It was such a fun way to spend the day of love with Grant and Jill!

Breakfast

Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Weekend

We brought Grant and Jill with us to the cabin in Midway. We all got in Saturday night, relaxed on Sunday, and went snowshoeing Monday morning.

Joining us in the cabin was Lucy "Scabbers" the Rat. We rat-sat her for our cousin Spencer (well, he didn't know because she was a surprise birthday gift for him). The boys were brave enough to pick her up so we could touch her. Even though we kind of did want to see her, it would still make Jill and I squeal whenever they brought her out. One night we built her a course to run in. Mostly she just knocked things down and tried to escape. You should've seen Jill react whenever Lucy came to her corner of the cake box barrier. So funny!

Monday morning was a perfect day to go snowshoeing. We went up to the state park and hiked wherever we could find open space. We barely managed to avoid losing the boys down a cliff they jumped off of, sprinting away from the snow plow, turning to road kill for food, mistaking running water for seeping gas, prying into a monster's shed and causing an avalanche. Other than those incidents, it was a very pleasant walk--complete with a delightful shower of snow the whole trip.