I put on some new bedsheets today. They really make me smile. I don't know what it is, but polka dots make me happy.
We have some different versions, including darker brown polka dots and reverse polka dot pillows. I don't know what made us decide on brown, but it's soothing. I would hate the idea of trying to fall asleep on red sheets.
(BTW the green pillows in the background are from a previous set of sheets that my mom bought for us when we got married, but they fit our old queen bed rather than our size-of-Texas king. I haven't yet been able to find good pillowcases that fit, and we love them a lot, so we keep them on the bed even though they don't match. We clearly don't care. Up until recently we were still using a queen quilt and mismatched pillowcases).
In Other News:
Josh is reading The Hunger Games and I think he's enjoying it. I've taken a hiatus from my 30 Books Before I'm 30 list because I have, sadly, become too busy to read for pleasure. I did finish The Book Thief today, which took me something like a month because it was mostly a bathtime book.
Also, in a neverending quest to decrease stress and try new things, I tried Moving Cupping courtesy of my acupuncturist. It felt... interesting... For a few days afterward it looked like I had been severely beaten, and I even freaked myself out in the mirror a couple times because I had forgotten about it. I'm not sure if I can recommend it, though I think it was helpful.
My family already celebrated Easter without us (for various reasons that I will, hopefully, be able to explain later... unless you've seen me in person, in which case I've probably already blah blah blahed about it). So I missed out on the egg hunt and the infamous lamb cake (a cake that looks like a lamb, not a cake made from lamb). Instead, when Josh and I went down to Eugene for the weekend, my mom and I made duck cupcakes.
They were supposed to look like this:
Hold on to your suspense!
We started off with cupcakes:
After we frosted the naked cupcakes for a base, we then added marshmallows cut in half crosswise for the tails and doughnut holes for the heads:
We were supposed to dip each cupcake in frosting, but the heads kept falling off. Instead, we did this:
It kind of worked, except the frosting at that point was so runny (for the dipping), it kept dripping off. I also used starburst for the beaks and feet:
This required me to spent an hour squishing and molding. There was much debate about how best to do the feet. I think they turned out okay.
We did finally get it all together, get the beaks on, and tried to keep the heads on. The turned out like this:
I think these duck bums are the cutest:
They are kind of deformed, but they just look so hopeful:
The unfortunate thing is that it took so much frosting to make everything stick together. It was a little too much sugar for me:
But people still ate and enjoyed them, so it was a success!
In Other News:
Remember how my dad requested we visit the Lego store in Chicago to buy odds and ends for his Lego projects? One of those projects is a Lego version of their house:
Isn't this ridiculous?
My dad was planning to make it so you can take off the roof, but the design didn't work so well. So you miss that inside the house is all relatively (as close as you can get with Legos) architecturally accurate. There are even minifigs for most of the members of my family. For some reason, we're all in the den eating turkey.
For the final leg of our trip, Josh and I made the trek from Nauvoo to St. Louis (with a slight detour into Iowa due to faulty navigation on my part. Thankfully, it only meant crossing the Mississippi too soon and only burned up 10-15 minutes).
The entire trip, Josh kept trying to cheer me up by telling me how warm it was in St. Louis. "It's 73 degrees in St. Louis right now!" he said as we froze in the Chicago wind. Then we got to St. Louis, after hours of driving (by Josh), went to the temple (#43!), came out, and it had SNOWED!
It was still beautiful:
But even the springtime flowers were frozen:
And our car was covered:
We had a quasi-treacherous drive to our hotel, which was close enough to walk to the Gateway Arch (we didn't of course):
The view from our room the next day
I was feeling a little sick (and sick of the traveling pace) so we spent the evening in the hotel. Josh tried to go out and get food but most places were closed (either due to weather or poor business planning). Downtown St. Louis isn't really known for its food, so there were slim pickings (we may or may not have eaten gross wings from Hooters).
We spent the last day of our trip at the Arch. It was ridiculously busy. In fact there was a long line at one leg of the Arch (because you have to go through a metal detector). We were worried because we were going to miss the outdated documentary about how they did the construction! So I told Josh to scope out the other side in case it was a shorter line. He texted me a few minutes later and said, "Line is shorter! Get over here now!" I ran, but it was more of a shuffle because I was wearing boots and holding my phone. For whatever reason, a girl took one look at me and thought I'd be a great candidate to take her tourist picture. "No! I can't! I'm sorry!" I yelled over my shoulder as I ranshuffled to Josh. Quick tip: Buy your Arch tickets ahead of time because they sell out. When we were there, they sold out at 12:30 and began turning people away. You could still see an outdated documentary about how they built the Arch, but really, why would you visit the Arch and not go to the top?
I guess you could see the museum, but. . .
Okay, it wasn't so bad. It was clean and only mostly racist. But we were there to go to the top of the Arch!
First, you line up according to the time on your ticket. Then they give you plastic cards with numbers on them:
Then you wait around for half an hour, only to line up outside of numbered doors:
When the doors open, you see that the tram to get to the top is shaped more like individual eggs:
Then you get in and are all squished together, 5 people to a pod:
When you get to the top, it pretty much looks like this:
The rectangle behind us is a window. This is what they look like from the outside:
There isn't a ton to see, but it's pretty cool to be so high. When you get bored with looking out of the tiny windows, you line up in a tiny hallway and wait for people to come up in their egg pods. As you can imagine, things get pretty cramped:
After the Arch we went on a riverboat tour on the Tom Sawyer:
It was a little cold:
We got to see some fun things, like:
The backside of "The Captains' Return," a statue of Lewis & Clark (with their trusty dog, Seaman) near the same spot where L&C returned from their trek west. Who knew they could walk on water? (Actually, the statue was specifically designed to handle being immersed in water when the Mississippi River floods, which happens every spring in St. Louis).
A Hobotown
An electricity plant built in 1904
And some bridges
It was a nice ending to our 2,000 mile (seriously), church history, temple-going road trip! It's also going to be the last trip we take for awhile. I don't get a break in August like I normally do because I start working at private practice doing assessments in July. In the future, some time, we will go to the Vancouver temple (maybe for a long weekend), but we have no plans for that now.
In honor of one of my favorite shows, So You Think You Can Dance, returning on May 26, I thought I'd share some of my favorite dance pieces from the show so that you can love them too.
I think it was because I was working at an inpatient drug and alcohol rehab when I saw this piece about addiction that made it so powerful to me. (Honestly, I cry every time I watch it). It's just beautifully danced and full of commitment. It is by far my favorite dance from the show.
I am in love with this next dance, and not just because it has a psychology theme. It also stars one of my favorite dancers, Alex, who should be coming back this season following an injury. I am really annoyed, though, because all of the good clips had their embedding option disabled, so you will have to click on this link and watch it on your own.
This next dance is also incapable of being embedded (BLARH!), so you will also have to link to it here. It's fun, there is some flipping, and I sang this song on our road trip when we passed the actual Hannibal, MO.
Finally, I wanted to share Josh's favorite piece, which he has only seen online because he hates this show and complains about it when I watch it. He likes this particular dance because it's creepy and he likes to say, "Rama Lama Bang Bang."
You should watch SYTYCD with me this summer!
On a side note: I never understood the appeal of American Idol. I had never even watched it before Josh and I got married and I don't watch it now. I didn't understand why people would waste their time voting, etc. But when I began watching SYTYCD I totally got it. And I may or may not have spent two hours one night phoning in my vote for a contestant or two. Especially these guys.
* This is what Josh calls the show. It stuck. He thinks it's hilarious.
I'm the Varsity Scout Coach and assistant Teachers Quorum advisor in our ward. There's a combined YM/YW talent show next week, although most of the boys won't even be there. Nonetheless, we thought it best to practice a song this evening... and then eat pizza while watching TRON: Legacy. It was a fun night. Here's the result of our practice:
I have to admit that, of all our stops, I was most looking forward to Nauvoo. For those that don't know, my religion was founded in Fayette, NY in 1830. Then the LDS (Mormon) saints moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where they built a temple. For various reasons they moved to Far West, Missouri, where they were violently expelled by locals and the Missouri government. After that, they settled near the Mississippi River in a small town (originally named Commerce) that they renamed Nauvoo.
But FIRST! We visited Carthage jail, site of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith (super morbid, right?) Since it was almost raining, it was a pretty slow day. Our tour guide was still in training so she read her little notecards.
The Jailor's kitchen
The more secure jailroom (thick brick walls, no windows)
The room in which Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed
There is still a bullet hole in the door
More of the room
I would write more about the events that occurred here, but that's not really for this blog. It was a special experience.
When Joseph Smith was shot, he fell out this window
The window from the outside-- the second-floor window facing us
The staircase with the front door to my right
Yes, I do find this entire part of the trip to be morbid, but we also visited Ford's Theater when we were in DC, so I guess it's normal for us.
Statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith outside of the visitor's center, but behind the jail
Then we were off to the exciting city of Nauvoo!
This model was in the LDS visitor's center
One of the most interesting things, in my opinion, about Nauvoo is that there are both LDS and RLDS-owned tourist spots. The RLDS (or Community of Christ) church owns everything that remained in the Smith family, such as the Nauvoo House where Emma lived after Joseph's death, the mansion house, which was actually a hotel, the Smith homestead, and the red brick store where the Relief Society was organized. Those were the places Josh really wanted to see, so we took a guided walking tour.
The gravestone for Emma, Joseph, and Hyrum Smith
This tour was the source of some of my rage expressed earlier. It also exposed me to a bizarre phenomenon where the tour guide (a 60+ yr old man) gushed over me for being a doctoral student who thought the Kirtland Temple tour was interesting (as though that made a difference). The other people on the tour asked me later what my degree was in, and when I told them they said, "Oh, so it's not in anything relevant." Completely valid. I was confused by the gushing too.
The Nauvoo House-- the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon was placed in a cornerstone. It was found before (too much) damage was done. It's amazing to me that people didn't consider keeping things like that safe from the elements.
The Smith Homestead, where Joseph Smith III (Joseph Smith's son and second prophet of the RLDS church) lived
The mansion house
The red brick store
I pretended like I was present for the first gathering of the Relief Society
The Smith family graveyard. The Mississippi River is in the background.
We never went to any of the LDS touristy stuff (free bricks!) because we were headed to temple #42.
From my journal:" The Nauvoo temple is amazingly, shockingly beautiful. I assume that the original plans were used with some modifications. Immediately past the recommend desk there is a meeting room similar to those (1st and 2nd floor) in the Kirtland Temple. To get to the dressing rooms you go up this beautiful spiral staircase. The dressing rooms are the most gorgeous I have ever seen-- with dark wood and beautiful mirrors. It's definitely a departure from all of the others we've seen on this trip. The ordinance rooms have murals (creation, garden, etc) and are progressive. My favorite part is that there are sunstones on the outside of the temple showing off their full faces, but in the Celestial Room the suns are only showing off their eyes. Also there is stained glass on the ceiling of the Celestial Room depicting the phases of the moon. I'm looking forward to coming back here some day."
From the side
The ShepAldery-ist picture of all!
So, when we were in Carthage, the senior missionaries told us that we should go to the musical "Rendez-vous in Old Nauvoo" later that night because it was put on by the senior missionaries in the area. I am so glad we did because I thought it was awesome. And I don't even mean that in a sarcastic way. It was exactly as you could expect-- most people were off-key and terrible actors. Not everyone remembered their lines or knew the choreography. But it was so sweet and heartfelt and I love the idea that these senior missionaries come to Nauvoo and have to do this. If you ever go to Nauvoo, remember to get your tickets for the rendez-vous!
We stayed for one night at the Woodruff Hotel and woke up bright and early the next day for the last leg of our trip-- St. Louis!
