Updates Galore

Well, 2011 is nearly half way over and I haven't done a great job of keeping this updated this year. Maybe that's because we haven't had much to report so I'll try to provide a brief summary of what's up in the Hart House.

1. We haven't been able to travel. Turns out, being unemployed hampers our ability to vacation. This has been a challenge for me and I eagerly await getting back to my travels. We are currently trying to convince my dad to plan a McCall, ID family vacation so that we can go river rafting, jet skiing, biking and golfing. We are also planning to take a nice long vacation after Jeremy finishes school and before he starts his job.

2. Speaking of jobs...we have one! Well we've actually had one for a really long time it's just that now we are more public about it because it is closer. Jeremy has a job offer from Deloitte to do IT Auditing in Kansas City starting in September.

3. So Kansas City. That's right we're moving to Tornado Alley. The Great Midwest! Dorothy, Toto, BBQ, Noodling...yep all of it! That will be us in a few short months. We're really excited and happy to have this opportunity. We don't yet know what the plan is for dealing with our condo but I'm sure we'll get it figured out soon, at least I keep praying for a miracle and I think it's on its way.

4. Running. We are currently 85% done with training for a half-marathon. I have no idea why we are doing this. We are running in the Utah Valley Marathon on June 11 and I am terrified. Hopefully I don't die. I just may though. Jeremy may have to carry me on his back to get me to finish. I know, I am weak and it isn't even a full marathon but I am really bad at running.

5. If it ever stops raining here we plan to do a lot of mountain biking this summer before we move. Has it always rained like this in Utah? It is getting really depressing.

State Champ!

My brother Collin is REALLY good at soccer and recently led his team to the state soccer championship, the first one ever for Wasatch High School. To say I'm proud is an understatement. I like to think that he learned everything from me but really he is the opposite of me in terms of athletic abilities which is why he is a champ! I guess the only soccer similarities we really have is the #3.

Coolest Grandma Ever

My Grandma passed away on Cinco de Mayo. It was sad. She is THE coolest ever. This is the eulogy I gave at the funeral (Special thanks to little Asher Kay for distracting me enough to get through it).

My Grandmother, was born here in Cardston, on October 31st 1922 to Ernest & Jenny Albiston and grew up on a farm near Sterling. She was the 6th of eight children having four older sisters: Rhoda, Edith, Maxine and Blanche, one older brother, Arthur, and two younger brothers, Garth & Keith, all of which are deceased. Growing up on the farm meant the kids had lots of chores to do. . . feed the pigs, herd sheep, milk the cows, feed the horses and clean their stalls, gather the eggs, and do dishes and even make their beds. The had neighbors that owned a buggy and a sleigh that the families would use to pull the kids to school. She attended the Pershing School and Cardston High.

She considered herself a little hellion. One Christmas she received a pair of black slippers and ran outside, covering them in slush and dirt. Her dad was so disappointed in her that he used a roof shingle and gave her a whack over the backside. In the warmer days when she and her siblings would come home from school, lots of times there would be mice or snakes along the ditch and on more than one occasion Grandma chased her sister Blanche with a snake (and Blanche was petrified of snakes). Another time she got a scar on her forehead because she tried to ride a dumb pig and he ran under a hay rack. She said, “I did some stupid things”, whereas her sister Blanche, whom she was always close too, never did.
At school there was always a big Christmas play. One year they put on “Scrooge” and Grandma played the part of Peter with the big Christmas turkey.

When she was a teenager, during the summer she boarded with a family south of town where she helped cook for the ranch hands. All these experiences taught my grandmother to be a hard worker. Following her schooling she worked in a café in Turner Valley and then moved to Toronto to work in a factory producing pistols for the war. When World War II ended she moved to Vancouver where her parents had re-located. There were interurban trains which ran from New Westminster to Vancouver so she got a job in the restaurant in the train depot. She really liked it, because she was able to meet a lot of people and her future husband, Sidney Hopkins, who was a motorman on one of the trains. Ruth and Sid eloped to Washington, where they were married on February 20, 1953.

Trains were being replaced by buses, and by the end of the summer of 1954 they made the decision to leave the big city. This was one of many adventures my grandmother would take throughout her life as they moved to the newly established town of Kitimat in northwestern BC where the Aluminum Company of Canada was building a plant. They drove some of the first buses to Kitimat which were used both to transport workers to the construction site, as well as transport children to their schools. My grandfather was a mechanic and my Grandmother went to the bus depot and managed the cafe there. There, they lived in a small camper trailer. The man who owned all the buses asked grandma if she would roll the money and do the banking. Gradually she was doing more and more and that is how she got started doing book work and she loved it.

Their plan was to stay just 5 years and then return to the lower mainland, but that changed when grandma became pregnant in 1957 and my father was born the following year. It was during these early years that grandma made friends with many, including Manuel and Patricia Cordeiro. In addition to raising her only child, she enjoyed working as a part-time bookkeeper / payroll clerk for the local bus company and an auto dealership. She was proud of the fact that she never worked after my father was born, until he went to school. Then she worked part-time or was home when he was home. The Hopkins house had a big chalk board on the wall, and grandma would leave my dad a note on the chalkboard and he would too if he was going some where after school. That tradition has been maintained in the Hopkins house in Heber City.

She learned to curl while in Kitimat and enjoyed participating in a women’s league as well as bonspiels in the neighboring communities from Prince Rupert to Prince George. She became an avid follower of both the men’s and women’s briar and tournament of hearts following her favorite teams on televison. When the 2002 Winter Olympics came to Salt Lake City curling was included as a winter sport. Unlike tickets to the regular winter sports, curling tickets were relatively easy to get. So my dad made sure he was able to buy a couple of packages that included the Canadian Men’s team - - and we got enough tickets that a couple of us kids could attend with grandma. We were bored - -but she was right in her glory - - even pulled out a mini Canadian flag and waved it.

My grandpa liked to golf and taught my dad, but the closest golf course was in Terrace, thirty-plus miles away. When they built a new course in Kitimat, my parents bought a membership so my mom learned to golf. That was something the whole family did regularly from May to September.

Grandma – despised the fact that she was born on Halloween, viewing it as pure torture to have to hand out candy to children on HER birthday!

My grandpa died in 1981 just 4 months before my parents were married. Shortly thereafter she sold their home and undertook another adventure by moving back to her roots here in Cardston so she could be closer to family, including her dear sister Blanche. While living in Cardston she was a volunteer with the hospital auxiliary and worked part-time in the Cardston Temple kitchen where she enjoyed interacting with the patrons. She enjoyed the annual live theater productions and kept busy. She was alone for 11 years and during that period of time found out she had breast cancer - - which she beat! Then during one of her visits to our family in Utah, she told my Mother that she had met Arthur Strudwick and my Mom teased her saying , “Grandma’s got a boyfriend! Grandma’s got a boyfriend!”

On December 4, 1992 she married Arthur Strudwick and began a new chapter in her life, expanding her circle of love with his children and grandchildren. Their adventure together included wonderful opportunities to serve side-by-side as ordinance workers in the Cardston Temple as well as a church service mission to the Lethbridge Cannery / Bishop’s Storehouse. They even travelled a little bit taking trips to Branson, MO and a Caribbean Cruise. Arthur died in 2008.

She was a kind and loving mother and grandmother and is survived by her son, Rod (Janet) Hopkins, Heber City, UT and six grandchildren: Janene (Kay), Denae (Hart), Reece, Neil, Collin, and Nicole. Ruth also has four great-grand children Leah Kay, Corban Kay, Brice Kay, and Asher Kay.

How two people with no kids clean up vomit. . .

So Sunday was a learning experience for Jeremy and I. We were in Primary and the lesson was on families and there was some type of object lesson using an apple and how the apple had a core but if you don’t have the core everything falls apart. Each of the kids got a tiny slice of apple to take with them to class. Ian was mostly just squeezing his slice in his hand and sort of nibbled on it here and there. We did not understand what this was because usually he devours the treats we give him. He kept taking these tiny little bites of the apple and had broken it into smaller pieces and so we started encouraging him to just pop a whole piece in his mouth. Finally, we got him to put this small little piece in his mouth and just eat it instead of play with it. Then he started gagging. But he wasn’t gagging like choking on the apple gagging he was gagging like I don’t like this gagging and I thought he was going to spit it out. I told him he better just swallow it and not spit it out. He continued the forced gagging. And then it happened. Right in front of my eyes. Projectile vomiting. I am seeing a counselor to overcome the images that are burned into my retinas. Then we sat and stared at each other, all three of us, just staring, thinking what the….just happened? Finally we came out of our haze and Ian informed us he doesn’t like apple skin. Information that would have been good prior to eating half an apple slice and vomiting up your last two meals. So I went and got the Primary President and she found this special puke powder in the janitorial closet that we poured on the floor which apparently dries it up and then we swept it up and threw it away. Then Jeremy vacuumed over the spot and then sprayed it down with some type of disinfectant cleaner we found. And that my friends, is how two people with no kids clean up vomit.

Young Women’s Basketball

I love church sports. And by love I mean LOVE. I know, I am a big nerd but I have always loved church sports, any of them really.

I think the first thing I played was Young Women’s volleyball and I wasn’t even strong enough to serve the ball over the net so I would grunt like a tennis player and hope that it made it over. You would think this would have been a bit embarrassing or humiliating for me but no, I loved it!

Then of course there was basketball which I will take to the grave the pride I feel about my church basketball record. My claim to fame is winning the region championship by defeating the mighty Charleston team; and also that our team tried to figure out a way to dunk in a game. My sister, Janene, was the tallest person on the team so she would run down, fall on her hands and knees in front of the hoop and then we would jump off her back in our attempt to dunk. It was awesome.

When I went to college I played every intramural sport I could and since it was BYU-Idaho intramurals it was basically the equivalent of church sports. We were back-to-back champions in basketball, another fact that I am very proud of and would claim on a resume if Jeremy would let me. My singles’ ward here in Salt Lake even had basketball and volleyball where I again was on a champion basketball team. So you can see by my stellar record why I love church sports so much, right? I know, it is totally dorky to get this excited about church sports but I am a dork and I don’t want to be in the closet on this issue anymore.

Anyway, the actual reason for this post is because I am coaching the Young Women’s basketball team in my ward. It is AWESOME! I love it. It is the highlight of my week…literally. Apparently sometime in the last 10 – 15 years church sports have become not as cool as I remember them being. We only have two girls from our ward who show up and only about 10 girls in the whole stake so they don’t even have teams you just show up on Thursday nights and play. Last week we didn’t even have enough girls for two teams to play so the other coach and I had to play. I use the word had when it should be GOT to play. It was amazing. I was having so much fun. Don’t worry I wasn’t one of those creepy old people trying to be an all-star beating up on little kids. I think everyone had a blast and yes, my team won!

It is my personal goal to make church sports cool again. I don’t quite know how I am going to do it, but I am going to do it.

Gummy Worms and Other Fun Discoveries

About six or seven months ago Jeremy and I were called to be Primary teachers in our ward. Typical, I know. But we aren’t the usual Primary teachers. We only have one kid. His name is Ian and he has a few different learning/developmental disabilities so he has been siphoned out of normal Primary and has his own teachers, his own class, and his own special spot in the back of the room. You get the idea. So basically we just babysit this kid for the first two hours of church and then we go to Sacrament. As you can imagine, I have a super crappy attitude about this. Jeremy on the other hand is really, really good with Ian. He thinks the things he does are just hilarious and doesn’t get bothered like I do. I believe this is because Jeremy was a hellion as a child and so he finds wild behavior amusing.
About a month or so ago we arrived at church on a rainy day. Ian walked in a few minutes later wearing a white shirt and huge blue snow pants that were about three sizes too big and sneakers. We thought his outfit was a little comical but it didn’t really shock us. As he was getting situated in his chair I noticed a little gummy worm on the floor and I thought to myself “that’s weird, I didn’t notice that before, I wonder where it came from.” As I was contemplating this mysterious gummy worm I wasn’t really paying attention to Ian until I hear Jeremy exclaim, “YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!” Jeremy is usually never stern or shocked by anything Ian does so I was immediately startled and looked over. To my surprise I saw Ian leaning down over the shoe he had just taken off his sockless foot and was pulling out wads and wads of smooshed together gummy worms…from his shoe…where his foot had just been…where his sockless foot had just been. I looked over at Jeremy and we were so disgusted, shocked and confused all at the same time we just kind of stared at each other. Finally, Jeremy came to his senses and said “throw those away NOW” and pointed at the garbage can. Miraculously Ian listened and responded and walked over and threw them away. I think he was kind of shocked to see Jeremy be so serious so he did what he said.

We’ve had other fun adventures in the Primary. For instance, during the program it was our jobs to make sure Ian got up with the other kids to sing, stood there and try to make sure he didn’t distract the other kids, and then try to quietly get him back to his seat on the stage. This was no small feat. First of all, Ian does not sing so the Primary program was not really his thing. He also does not usually have to sit quietly through Sacrament. We made it through the first few songs okay but about half way through Ian decided he was done. The kids had finished a song and needed to return to their seats, Ian however didn’t want to move. Jeremy was trying his best to try and convince him to go back to his seat behind the piano but he wouldn’t. Jeremy kind of grabbed him to try and push him up the stairs and that’s when Ian decided he wanted Jeremy to carry him. This is no small little boy; he is 10 and a pretty big kid. So Ian is doing the whole body wimping thing that toddlers do and Jeremy is trying with all his might to lift/carry him back to his seat but Ian makes it down to the floor and just lies on the steps. So Jeremy stands over him straddling him and tries to basically drag his limping body up the stairs on the stage to his seat, while the entire ward is watching from the audience. By the time he got him back to his seat we had both decided that Ian was done being in the program and we remained in our seats for the remainder of the meeting.
Some other fun memories have been trying to keep Ian in his seat during sharing time which one week involved him standing up to run away and Jeremy and I both grabbing his arms and yanking him back in his seat. He was not a big fan of this and every time we would do it he would turn to me and scream, “DON’T TOUCH ME, DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” That was fun.

I’ve also resorted to showing him YouTube videos from my phone on things he likes like Elephants, Harry Potter and Land Before Time. Teacher of the year, I know! Usually I only do that during class time where we can’t be judged by other Primary teachers, but one week I did use it during music time and showed him Facebook photos of us at the San Diego Zoo.

All in all, I am starting to have a much better attitude about this whole experience and have stopped dreading going to church each week. Although, if the gummy worms come back I might just up and quit.

Construction, Anniversary, and other Happenings

First things first...the pipe drama is over!!! Well, knock on wood and hope for the best I guess. We had our pipes replaced and it has brought a huge sense of relief to us. It was stressful knowing that at any moment we could have a pipe burst. Even though it was expensive to fix we are happy that it is done and we can move on, and hopefully the value of our place will stop decreasing!!!

Here's the damage





Luckily everything has been restored to its proper order and it only took a week! Plus, our downstairs neighbor finally had his ceiling replaced (thanks to a few reminder emails from Jer to the owner) so we no longer have to listen to his insane ranting and raving from the shower every single night!!! I think I might be more happy about this than I am about the pipes even.

Jer and I also celebrated our one year anniversary this month. Yep, that's right, we made it a year! Since we are poor now we had to utilize a gift card I won in my company golf tournament and went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Jer was then able to score a sweet KSLDeal and get us a room at The Armstrong Mansion, a local bed and breakfast. We wanted to go mountain biking at Snow Basin the next day but turns out the lifts are closed for the season so we ended up going to Heber and golfing with my brother Collin and then having dinner with him and my dad. On Saturday we were able to hang out with my friend April and her husband Ben who were in town. We went to The Scarlet Pimpernel and really enjoyed it. It was really fun to see them and an overall, really good relaxing weekend.

We've also had a fun sporting month. We got free Jazz tickets for the final preseason game because we donated some food to the food bank. We are REALLY looking forward to this NBA season. Go Jazz!!

We also got tickets to the BYU vs. Wyoming football game and our seats were sweet and BYU actually won so it was a great game to attend.


And finally to end this blog post of randomness, two final random thoughts. Have you tried this?


Cafe Rio Queso. Try it. Love it.

And...

I don't know what this guy is listening to or taking, but I want it, because anyone who is that energized and in to his workout must be doing something right.