My Handy Wife

My wife is very handy.

Anyone that knows me knows that handy is not a word that describes me at all.  So it's good that at least one of us can be described that way.

Robyn's latest project is a very important one, because it will turn into food in the future.

The grow boxes were phase one.  The final phase is a fancy schmancy greenhouse type structure.

Lest you think I didn't participate, I was a big helper.  I drove all the way to Lowe's and helped pick out seeds.  Don't they look delicious?

I also documented the whole process.  Somebody's gotta do it.

Robyn had to hand cut the PVC to build her structures.

She had to screw them in to the sides of the grow boxes

She looks like she's going pole vaulting, but she's just being a good little builder.

Aren't they fabulous little covered wagons?

The little ropes divide up where the different plants go.

Her Dad came in and helped with the planting round.

In our old house, we planted in May and then it snowed the next day.  This greenhouse strategy protects against that problem.  If there is snow or even just frost, it won't hurt our little babies.  Then later in the summer, we just take the plastic off.

She cut holes in the plastic to help the wind pass through.

Look at our cute little plants.

Are you totally impressed with my wife?  I know I am.  If you want to be more impressed, come on over in a couple months and eat some delicious vegetables with us.

I'm a VIP

Most people have to be getting on a plane to get through Airport Security.

I'm not most people.

Most people have to stand in line to get through security.

I'm not most people.

You're probably wondering why I'm so special.  It all comes down to a little song that I used to sing in Elementary School.  The first two lines say it all, "I'm a VIP in my family.  I'm a VIP, you see!"

That should be enough for you, but since you're so needy I'll give you more.

But to explain it I need to back up a bit.

Robyn's parents and her grandma (who is German, and will henceforth be called Oma) were both in town this week.  We've spent lots of quality time together over the last few days, and really enjoyed each other's company.

This afternoon it was time for Oma to fly home.  Robyn and I volunteered to drive her to the airport.

Oma is 93 years old.  She can't walk very far without help.  She has a wheelchair, but it gets a little tricky getting her through security when she's flying by herself.  Someone needs to push her wheelchair, so we usually get an airline employee to escort her through and make sure she gets on the plane okay.

My role was simple.  I drove the car to the airport.  Robyn got out with Oma and helped her get as far as security, and watched her go through.  While all that was happening, I sat in the "Park and Wait" area reading a book.

While Robyn was pushing the wheelchair, she asked Oma to hold her wallet.  (Because her hands were full pushing the wheelchair, and why would she ever have a wallet small enough to fit in her pocket?)

Oma got through security and to her gate safely when she realized that she had an extra wallet.  Luckily, cell phones exist, or else Robyn would have had to wait for her to mail it.

She was able to get a hold of us, but the problem remained, how to get the wallet to us.  Robyn spoke to an airline employee and he said he could print her a temporary pass to get through security.

He asked her, "Do you have id?"

"Well, it's already at the gate."  That presents a problem for getting through security.

"Is there anyone else with you?"  That question is what ruined my peaceful book reading at the Park and Wait.

Robyn called me and told me I was going to go get her wallet from Oma.  I pulled up to the pick up area, and Robyn sat in the car while I ran in.

I found the same employee and told him my wife sent me.

"Is she the one with the grandma?"

"Yes" I said.

He printed me out a nifty spifty little pass that let me get through security.

I asked him if I was going to need to stand in line to get through security.  I was really worried that I wouldn't get there in time and I didn't want Oma to miss her plane.

That's when he told me the secret strategy to avoid a security line.  Apparently, one building over from the regular terminal is the international building.  It has its own security checkpoint.  I ran over to the other building, only to discover that the security checkpoint was closed.   I stood there and whimpered like a cute little puppy dog until a security guru emerged.

I explained my story to him and showed him my nifty little pass.   He agreed to open up the checkpoint just for me.  I still had to empty my pockets and take off my flip flops and everything just like normal.  Then he said,  "We are going to have to give you a full pat down."  I kind of laughed a little bit, then he said, "You think I'm kidding."  I stood there nervously.  I was really concerned about getting there in time, but I wasn't sure if he was joking.  Luckily he said, "I'm just kidding, go on through."

I ran like the wind.  (If the wind could run, it would run like I ran.)  I got to the gate and there were only about 15 billion people standing there waiting to get on the plane.  I had to swim through a sea of people, but finally I located Oma, got the wallet, thanked her and called Robyn to let her know the mission was a success.

After that I walked leisurely back to the car.  I made sure to stand, not walk, on the moving sidewalk.  I had had enough rushing for the day.

Robyn said I was her hero.  Not only am I a VIP, but I'm a hero.  And that's a pretty good thing to be.

Just a quick update

     This week we were busy!  School is getting crazier as we get closer to the end of the year (6 more weeks!) and my family will be coming in town next week so I am catching up on my cleaning.  We also had the house appraised so we can lock in a good interest rate while we can.

     Thursday we went and saw Jeff's brother in "Hello Dolly" at the Scera Theater in Orem.  Every time I see a play I remember all the fun times I had doing shows.  It has been 7 years since I was in a play and I do miss it sometimes.  I always go home singing
after a show and think, "I should try that again some time".  I don't know if I will ever push myself to do it again, but it is fun to get excited about singing and performing again.

Here is a great selfie of us at the temple.

     Saturday Jeff and I took a mini road trip with Jeff's sister.  We went to the Manti Temple.  It was super busy and a beautiful spring day.  I like spending one on one (sort of since there were three of us) time with Jeff's siblings.  I like getting to know them better each time.  We talked a lot about adoption because Mariellen's husband is adopted.  She has asked us lots of questions about what it is like to be on the "waiting" side of the process.  I love just talking with family and always building a better relationship with each person.

I was Fat in Hawaii

The last few months I've been working really hard to lose weight.  Though, I've seen progress on the scale (and more importantly, in my ability to move around and enjoy my life) I wasn't entirely convinced that there were any visible changes.

Then I was looking at pictures of our Hawaii vacation last year.  This is me in the Maui airport about 10 months ago.

Don't get me wrong, I was quite precious.  But I just now noticed my dewlap made of fat.

Here is me right now.  (Well, not exactly, I took the picture like 3 minutes ago.)

I still have plenty to lose, but there's a noticeable difference, amiright?

Naturally, after looking at my reflection in the phone, it was important to try and recreate how I looked in the Hawaii picture.

Perhaps I haven't made any progress after all.

(Side note from Robyn:  I am VERY proud of Jeff for all of his hard work to get his health back in order.  I'm happy to report that I have lost weight too and feel good.  I also have to state that the last picture made me laugh and I love it.)

My Green Thumb

This weekend I finally got around to working on our grow boxes again.  We love fresh veggies and fruits in the summer and we didn't get to grow them last year because we were busy building the boxes and ran out of time to plant.  Well I'm determined to get things planted this year (and hopefully not kill any of it), but first I needed to build a green house top to keep the plants safe from snow.  My dad told me what to buy and how to build it.  I felt very handy and Jeff documented the event.  When I finished one (without the plastic on top so I can still plant later) Jeff proudly proclaimed that I had just built a great covered wagon!  Up until that point I did not realize that is exactly what it looked like.  I just hope this covered wagon grows good crops.  Here are some pictures Jeff documented for posterity.

All the seed packets we want to plant! We are a bit ambitious.

Love my power tools!

Isn't it such a cute covered wagon.

Adoption Pass Along Cards!

I finally finished the  adoption pass along cards!  My sister Megan and I sure learned a lot about Adobe Photoshop.  I'm actually glad because now I can make cute things for my classroom as well.  Here are some of the ones we worked on but we only picked the top two to print.

Festival of Colors

This weekend we had planned to take a little Easter vacation.  My parents had their time share down in St. George and we were going to go down there for some hiking, swimming, fun in the sun and relaxation.

Unfortunately, there was a little mix-up   It turns out they had booked the condo for March 29, 2014.  March 29th was when we planned to go down, but it turns out that the year portion of the date is important.  And since this year is 2013, they weren't gonna let us use the condo.  (How rude!)

We were sad that our plans fell through.  (But, I was more sad for my mom, we were just going to spend the weekend but they were making it a bigger trip.)  Fortunately, there was a silver lining to the cloud of the timeshare mix-up.   I got the opportunity to cross a very important item off my bucket list.

Every year around this time I see all sorts of pictures cropping up on Facebook from the festival of colors that happens at the Hare Krishna Temple.  I've always wanted to attend, but every year we end up making plans on that weekend before realizing that we are once again going to miss it.

Well, this year since our plans fell through, we decided to attend so that we could put our own pictures of our brightly colored selves on Facebook.  Here is the sum of our experience in pictures.

The temple filled with people as we approach

The cloud of colors from people throwing

Robyn and I with the colorful people

Robyn and I with our friend Kayli

Colorful Kissing

Selfie before we get back in the car

Isn't she cute?

It was a great experience.  They had a band playing and people were singing and dancing.  I love to experience other cultures.  I think the celebration of colors and "lovingly coloring each other" is a fabulous form of worship.

One of my favorite parts was when the band was playing Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, only they had changed the lyrics to be about Krishna.  It was kind of awesome.

My second favorite part was throwing colors on people who were walking in as we were leaving.  They were blank canvasses, ready to become works of art.