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.

My Gracie Lou Freebush

My best friend Grace got married on January 16th--just like I told her.

I met Grace my freshman year when we kind of liked the same guy. And then we realized that we didn't really like him--we liked being with each other better. So we roomed together the next year and had a BLAST! (Have you ever made throwing panties into the ceiling fan a hobby? Well, you should...) I went on my mission to Oregon and Grace went on her mission to Guatemala. And then I got married and then she went to France to nanny. When she finally decided to come home again, we had a long chat about her future plans with "the boy", whom she'd been dating for a couple of years. It was a long chat over a beautiful platter of Italian goodness and two hunks of chocolate sin plus several hours over the short couch in our house. Born of that conversation was the official date of when she needed to marry Kevin.

So on Saturday the 16th Josh and I drove to the Oquirrh Mountain temple and watched my beautiful friend be sealed to the love of her life. While Grace was caught up in her wedding gettin' busyness and festivities--Josh and I spent the rest of our time with my old roommates and friends from Rexburg. It. was. a. hilarious. night. Thank you Lindsey, Liz, Melissa, and Megan!

Aerial Competition

In January, we went with Grant and Jill up to Deer Valley Resort in Park City to watch the pre-Olympic aerials competition. It was really cool! The resort was packed so Jill and I hopped out to find a spot while the boys parked the car. We had to duck-walk up the bunny hill because the snow was so slipperty (oops..that was an accident but I think I like it). Jill and I wormed our way into the crowd and watched the skiers shoot off the jumps. We couldn't see them at all beforehand and had to wait on the announcer to know when one was coming. They flipped and spun so fast that it was hard to grasp it all. I wish I could have seen some kind of slow motion replay.

We'd all gotten to the competition late so it was very short but very fun, especially the fireworks display at the end of the medal ceremony. It was probably the best fireworks show I'd ever seen--just ask Grant and Jill, they're firework connoisseurs.

From the bunny hill, looking down on Deer Valley Resort.

The bottom of the aerial course.

The mogul course right next to us.

A portion of the incredible fireworks display.


And here's a very sideways (can you be very sideways? I mean, either you're sideways or you're upside down, right?) video of our view of the aerials.

Christmas in Georgia

This year we were able to go home to Georgia for Christmas. The holiday season was filled with secret shopping trips to the mall (nearly every day), several games of bowling, late night rounds Mexican Train, a Settlers game here and there, lots of good eatin', and plenty of relaxing.

Josh and I celebrated our proposal anniversary. Three years ago on the 23rd, he had recreated our first date and proposed in the back of his truck in the mall parking lot. I'm fully aware of the powerful, romantic magnetism of asphalt but it really was the sweetest.

Christmas Eve was spent at the Haycock home with Josh's grandparents and my family (minus Darcy...tear). We had a wonderful soup dinner and then went on the traditional Christmas Eve scavenger hunt for our white elephant gifts. Josh got a denture ice tray and I found a Disney Princess Sing-along CD. Afterward, Josh's dad and Ashley shared the Christmas story through a series of Bible and Book of Mormon scriptures.


We spent the night at my parent's house and woke up to find this boy outside the bedroom door.
It's my favorite way to find Matt on Christmas morning--huddled over his pillow (unfortunately not his Pikachu anymore), ready to be the first one to fly down the stairs as soon as Dad gives the go-ahead.


Mom and Dad and their matching....wait, what were those?