I'd be angry if I wasn't so relieved

My youngest sister, Hillary, has been the reigning Miss Kearns for the past year. It's been a great experience for her as she has learned to serve her community. However, it has also had it's down side. I wont drag you down with a full description of everything that has happened to her, but here is something to give you an idea of what she has been going through. Remember how you felt when you were 15. Add that to any memories you have of dealing with catty drama queens. And you are close to knowing what Hillary has dealt with this year.

Last night was the pageant where the new Miss Kearns was crowned, and Hillary got to give away her crown. It was a small slice of what the last year has been like. Through out the night I kept seeing examples of why I am glad Hillary is done with this program.

This was the 5th Miss Kearns Pageant I've been to. Every year they play the same music for each segment. This year they changed all the music. I could understand if they wanted to update the music to more current popular music, but the music they picked was horrible. It didn't go with the moments at all. It's like the people in charge thought, "this is the 10 year anniversary, we better do something different, like change the music." But then spent 30 seconds picking out the music.
This year I didn't know any of the contestants so I felt a little disconnected from caring about who won. Also the pageant directors took out the Talent portion of the program. Their rational for this was to include girls that didn't have a performing talent. As a replacement they put in a group talent to "foster their individual team building skills." So instead of seeing each girl perform a short song, dance, monolog, poem, etc we got to see all the girls perform a dance together. Hillary later told me that the girls were told that they would receive the same score for this segment. They were told, "you're all going to get the same score, and so you all want it to be real high." I really missed the talent part. It's always so amazing to see a young person conquer their fears and perform alone on a stage. This year I felt like I never got to know the contestants. Hillary was also excluded from showing her talents. In other years the exiting royalty has always performed filler acts between the contestants' parts. Hillary practiced for several weeks to learn to sing the Abba song, "Thank you for the Music". Well for some reason (and probably a petty reason) Hillary was told that the Royalty wouldn't perform this year. I told her it was because they didn't want her to have a live microphone - they didn't want her telling everything that really goes on in this pageant. So Hillary didn't get to share her beautiful singing voice. Instead everyone got to hear Little Miss Kearns screech out "My Heart Will Go On". The little 9 year old girl didn't even have piano accompaniment, she sang along with the Celine Dion version.
Hillary did have her moment though. She was allowed her final walk. Traditionally the final walk is where the Reigning Royalty walks across the stage while a recording of them talking about their year plays. Hillary was able to strut her stuff as she smiled and posed for everyone. Brandon was able to be Hillary's escort for this part.
At the end of the pageant the new royalty was crowned. I really didn't care about them, but I did have my favorites. (I was going for the girl that was courageous enough to wear a mini skirt as formal wear) Then it was over. Hillary was done. Whatever this year had been it was now over.
We all congratulated Hillary on how well she did. Then we came home and had the traditional after party where we all discussed the pageant. We had fun laughing at how one of the filler acts of little boys lip syncing upstaged the group talent part. We asked Hillary if she had orchestrated a certain technical difficulty (she hadn't, but she had tried to prevent it), and we just laughed and laughed. We were so relieved that it was over.

It's still growing

I don't have kids - I have plants. So humor me while I show off my baby.

This is my sweet pea plant at work. Technically it is about 15 different sweet pea plants, but it's all one plant to me.
It is over 2 feet tall now.
And has lots of cute little curly fingers. I spent about 10 minutes a day guiding these fingers to grab onto the supports.

This is a picture of my new desk at work. I'm still adjusting to it. This thing is huge. It is bigger than my parents dining room table.

Two very different Saturday projects

I made these blocks as a present for a Baby shower I went to on Saturday. I made them that Saturday morning. Let them dry and then I went to the shower. I had a wonderful time, laughed, ate good food, and then walked home. I was thinking to myself what a great day it was and how there was still plenty of time for relaxing and enjoying the warm weather.

This is what I came home to.
Yeah that is right, Brandon is vacuuming the door frame.
Brandon has a personal vendetta against box elder bugs. Specifically the ones that like to hang out on our back door.
He realized they were living in the space between the top of our door and the cinder block. So he took the top of the door frame off his discovered the cracks that they were living in. He then spent the next 45 minutes shooting soapy water up the crack and vacuuming up the bugs that rained down. (I am so glad I wasn't home for this)
Brandon bought some expanding foam stuff and filled in lots of the cracks between the door and the cinder blocks.
This way the little bugs wont be able to get back into their homes.
He kind of destroyed the previous door frame so he made a new one out of wood we happened to have around. I asked him which he thought of first. 1. Taking the door frame off, or 2 using the other wood. He told me he didn't think I wanted to know.
The new door frame looks better than the old one anyway so I'm not complaining. All we have to do is caulk the edges and paint it and I don't think the landlord will complain either.
And here is a measurement of our success - Lots of dead box elder bugs. They still hang out on the wall but they can't get in any of the sealed up cracks. So they freeze, die, and fall off.

Mocking Jay Pin

Every once in a while (like every other week) I get an idea that I do not have the time, talent, or patience to pull off. Fortunately I married an Illguth so this really is a non issue. All I have to say is "Brandon, can you help me?" and success is pretty much guaranteed. I had such an idea a couple weeks ago.

I wanted Brandon to help me make a pin for my sister Hillary. I wanted it to be a Mocking jay pin like in the Books, Hunger Games and Catching Fire. (If you haven't read these books you need to cancel your plans today and go read them - NOW) Basically the Mocking jay pin comes to symbolize a revolution. Hillary is feeling a little oppressed right now so I thought the pin would cheer her up.

Anyway, Brandon got all excited and started carving birds out of sculpy clay.

Here are some of the versions he came up with.

I can't work in this type of detail so I'm glad he was helping me.

This is what the bird looks like without the feathers.

Okay, you have to go with me on this because I didn't get pictures of all the steps, but I promise this is what we did. Brandon made a bird out of clay. Then he cast a plaster mold with it. Then he poured this resin jewelry stuff in the mold and let it harden. Once is was hard he glued a tie tack pin into the back and sprayed the pin gold with enamel paint.

And this is what we got.

Here is the back of the pin.

We gave Hillary the pin on Sunday and she tried it on with her Miss Kearns Dress.

It looks just how I hoped it would.

Here she is with the book and the pin.

Brandon did such a good job getting the pin to look like the one on the cover.

Hillary can't wait to wear the pin when she gives away her crown next week.

Last Weekend in Provo

Okay, so I'm a little late on this, but last weekend was so fun I just had to do a post about it.

Friday we went down to Santaquin and babysat our nephews. Sorry I forgot to get pictures of the really awesome fort I made in the basement.

Then on Saturday we drove to Provo. We found this really cool tree in the middle of all the city buildings in down town Provo. (Actually I have seen it before, but I forgot all about it until we started driving in downtown Provo. Suddenly I remembered the cool tree and so I made Brandon pull over so we could go find it.)

It is known as a Weeping Elm and is a hybrid type tree.

It has to be supported by all these metal posts.

Too bad there are tons of signs that say you can't climb on the tree.

Then we picked up my brother Billy at his dorm and walked around the Provo Temple.

Here is a view of Utah Lake from the temple.

We made an impromptu trip to Bridal View Falls.

We counted this as our hike for the weekend.

We took Billy out for Cold stone Ice cream.

I love gift cards.

And then we went and heard Billy play with the BYU Philharmonic Orchestra. They played Mahler's 5th Symphony which was amazing. Even though I grew up with a Dad that played Classical music ALL the time I have never knowingly listened to Mahler. Well after that concert I want to listen to Mahler a lot more. It was such interesting music. And it never was boring. Mahler throws in lots of surprises that keep you on your toes. Billy did really well. He is only a freshman, but so far he has done a lot.

Anyway it was a great weekend. I'm glad we got to see so many family members.

Flight Update

I just want to let you all know that Brandon has started flying again. He is three flights into his Commercial rating. You may remember that there are 4 things needed to fly:

1. Money, 2. Good Weather, 3. Competent Flight Instructors, and 4. Time. Well there happens to be a 5th thing- Airplanes.

Right now we have the money, sort of consistent good weather, a pretty good instructor, and plenty of time, but we are having trouble with the airplanes. Now that Brandon is working on his commercial rating he flies a type of plane called an Arrow. USU only owns 3 Arrows which means Brandon has to compete with a lot of other students for a chance to use one of the planes. Already he has had two flights scrubbed because he didn't have a plane.

As you can imagine this has been pretty frustrating for us. We'd appreciate it if you could remember to include us in your prayers and possibly your fasts this week. Thanks for your interest in our lives. We love you all.

Bling Bling

I love jewelery. I have tons of earings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, hair things, you name it. But unfortunately I sometimes misplace earings. I've been holding on to the unlost jewelery in the hopes that some day I would find the match, but a couple weeks ago I faced reality. I was probably never going to find the earings that I lost 2 or 3 apartments ago. So I decided to make a really cute present for my niece with what I did have.

I started with a $1 picture frame from DI.

I sorted out all the mismatched earings and the ones I hardly ever wear.
Brandon sanded down the picture frame and puttied the corners.

Then I painted the frame and sprinkled glitter on the paint while it was still wet.Then I glued on all the little jewels, crystals, beads, and other shiny odds and ends. I used glue called E6000 glue. It's known to the state of California to cause cancer which means it will glue anything together.
Here are some close up shots of the former forgotten treasures.