Weekly News by Callie
(I really wish she would've kept this up)
A Grand Greeting
February 1st, after the kids got off to school, Mallerie and I headed down the canyon. I got Grandma Donna on the phone for Mallerie. Grandma started asking all sorts of questions about Mallerie's mission so I said, "Tell her we are only ten minutes away and we are coming to see her!" Grandma was delighted. I took a photo of the two of them as we entered the apartment. Grandma said, "Sorry it's so dark, the lightbulb is burned out." I said, "We can fix that!" Mal got a step stool and had it changed out in no time. We needed to take advantage of her still being in service mode;)
Justin and Joselyn came down to say hello and Mallerie got to meet baby Orien. He is such a happy little thing!
That evening Mallerie's mission companion, Heather Walker, who she served SIX transfers with arrived at out house for oodles of fun. Seriously, listening to these two talk was like a comedy show.
She told me that Heather eats a vegan diet whenever she can. I have never made vegan food and so I asked what I should do. Mal said, "It's fine if you make regular food, her stomach will just hurt very badly." Well I didn't want that, so I figured something out. We had a wilted lettuce and quinoa salad with nectarines, grapes, pecans and craisins, topped with a homemade vinaigrette.
The next day it was just Heather and Graham in Heber while the rest of us were gone. They went to grab a (vegan) bite to eat and managed to stay busy. Heather was so sweet with him. She's really great. I can see why Mal adores her so. They both concurred, "Our struggle on our mission was that we didn't struggle."
For Christmas we gave tickets to all the kids: the boys got Jazz tickets, K and G got Hale gift cards, and the rest of us got Wizard of Oz tickets. It was a treat to see Lexi Walker star in the matinee performance on Saturday February 2nd. This was the girls first time at the new Center Stage and the production was pretty spectacular. Since we had Wicked tickets for the next week, I thought it would be good for them to see Oz so they would know what Wicked was even about!
The next day was the Super Bowl party at the Taylors (or as Grayson calls them, the Shafers). This was the first time Mallerie saw the extended family, including dear cousin Raegan, who she has not seen in over three years because their missions overlapped.
Take a sec to really focus on the expressions in this photo. SOOOO SWEET!
Mallerie could not BELIEVE how tall the boy cousins have gotten. Here she hugs Harrison.
Speaking of coming and going and overlapping. I was a mess with remembering when to pick up kids and forgot them on more than one occasion. I set pick up alarms on my phone; as many as my phone would allow. This became a real necessity after I failed to pick up the carpool kids from archery one evening in December. While I shopped at Walmart, the kids walked home. I had a friend say to me recently, "Carpool isn't for everybody." True words.
Archery!
Callie took archery at the Middle School Tuesday and Thursday Oct-Feb. She went from not knowing how to hold a bow, to getting a bullseye with perfect form. I went the last day to watch her in action.
This is the Greatest SNOW!
We were heading down the canyon on Friday, February 8th when Mallerie shouted, "A Moose!" I turned off the road and sure enough there was a glorious moose! I don't know how she spotted it when here we were going the opposite direction. What a treat! Other cars followed my lead and pulled over. I don't know if they could see the moose or if they just wondered what treasure we had spotted. They claimed it was the moose that made them pull over, but we didn't really believe them.
Mallerie actually isn't used to all this snow! She said Colorado Springs is protected by mountains so not only does it not get much snow but it usually stays between the 40's and 60's in the winter.
For dinner we ate at Rumbi. Mallerie chose some spicy shrimp. I couldn't believe she could tolerate it! One bite and my lips were on fire.We had to eat and run because we had a very important date. Scott and Tammy Aaron were kind enough to open their home theater to us so Mallerie could have an exquisite first viewing of The Greatest Showman. With all the cousins it was one of the best viewings yet! Raegan treated us to choreography to "This is Me." I was glad Mallerie felt the movie measured up to all the hype. Phew.
Phrase of the night: "Get a life, or get out of mine." All in good fun. All in good fun.
Homecoming! February 10th 2019
I would love to somehow attach Mallerie's homecoming talk. It was what my dad described as, "The best I've heard." She had so many family and friends come and support her. It worked out great that we were the last ward so we could have a luncheon in the cultural hall after the second hour (love two-hour church;) Even though I was planning on having the luncheon at the church, Matt wanted to be safe and reserve it. My fear was that they would tell us we couldn't use the church for that purpose on a Sunday (this comes from my, "Ask forgiveness, not permission" mentality). Matt decided it was better to be safe than sorry. Sigh, fiiiiiine. Luckily it was fine.
We had everything in coolers in the car that we just had to bring into the building. There are so many little wives now to help out! In addition to my sisters, Kei was dishing out platters and then Romney and Raegan peeked in to see what they could help with. It was all set up in no time. I was so grateful.
The first I saw Ashley was in the hall after Sacrament meeting. We both just laughed and gave each other a hug that we had both paired our matching H and M skirts with cheetah print shoes.
With lulnch out of the way we could visit for a bit at the house with just close family members.
Okay, moving on. I promise not every post will be about Mallerie. Poor Graham even said to me one day, "I know it is all about Mallerie right now...that is okay." Yes, there ARE other members of this family.
Spreading the Love and GAL-entine's Night!
We "spread" some love for our Laurel Activity the following Wednesday. Always a good time to be had with my Laurels and buttercream.
Valentines 2019~
Perfection.
A Wicked Surprise
Matt and I had an appointment in Salt Lake the following Friday evening. The forecast promised a storm and by the time we came out of our appointment the snow really began to fall. Matt said, "We might get snowed in." I said, "I'm banking on it." "Huh?" He was so surprised to learn that our bags were already packed and in the trunk! We used points to stay at our favorite downtown Marriott. It was so cozy to walk to dinner as the snow fell and to know we didn't have to drive back up Parleys canyon.
We spent the next day at City Creek. I texted Katrina a picture see if she knew where I was at. She texted back, "Make sure you don't leave without a candle." We also got a kick out of how uninterested Matt looked with being in Anthropology.
From City Creek we walked to the Salt Lake Temple where we were able to perform sealings. I got to bring Mallerie back the next week and we went through a session. There is no place like the Salt Lake Temple.
Later that day we got to experience the beautiful new Eccles Theatre in downtown SLC. Wow! I had no idea how gorgeous it is inside! We have been anxiously awaiting our turn to see Wicked in Salt Lake City.
This is our third time seeing this production in as many cities: New York, LA and now Salt Lake.
Blissful weekend.
The girls saw Wicked with the cousins just the Saturday before so it was fun to talk about it with them.
An Even Wickeder Surprise
When you have a child like Graham, who is passionate about life, you just want to nurture that curiosity. His passion for the last long while has been with history and particularly, the Titanic. We went through the wonderful museum in Las Vegas last spring. Well, there is another museum in Branson Missouri. I presented the situation to Matt, "What if we drove to Branson for Graham's birthday?" Though these types of statements seem to come out of nowhere to Matt, he has been married to me long enough that they don't really surprise him. He considered it, looked into it, and we lined something up!
So after Sunday dinner the week before Graham's birthday he opened up a little gift bag. Inside was a Titanic book from the library, a toothbrush, a toy car and a no-homework pass. Graham put the clues together and came up with, "We are taking a road trip to Branson to see the Titanic Museum?!?"
WAHOOOOOO!
We had the next few days to get ourselves packed and to look forward to our upcoming adventures.
EEEEEEK!
Diamond kitty and fund-raiser as referenced in the above newsletter:
