The Country Club

Here is a word of caution to those of you who may one day be called to be the Activity Days leader in your ward: Even though it might be free, and even though it might be a good follow up to a previous activity on good table manners, don't take a group of seven 8-to-11-year-old girls to dinner at the country club because they will invariably need to use the fancy restroom about 17 times each and dinner will end up lasting 2 1/2 hours. Oh, and they just might start adding sweetener packets to their ice waters. Yeah, just take my word on this one. (This happened on Wednesday and I'm still trying to recover.)

Our First Anniversary

It is springtime in Muncie, Indiana: the dogwoods are blossoming, tornado warnings are sounding, and love is in the air. Blake and I celebrated our very first wedding anniversary today. We celebrated yesterday by going out to dinner. Blake picked a place to eat based on advertisements in the phone book. So we went to this little cafe that we'd never heard of in a nearby town that sounded nice and small-town-y and even advertised live musical entertainment! What could be better? Well, it turned out that this was a Christian cafe (it was called The Lighthouse Cafe....and I should have been able to figure out that it was something Christian-y, given the fact that the only lighthouses in Indiana are in fact churches) and the live entertainment was a family gospel band who mostly sang karaoke. It was quite entertaining. We stayed for a bit, but left before the spiritual message interlude between the performing groups (the first was a family called Chain of Righteousness and the last was going to be an Elvis impersonator). Anyway, totally not what we expected, but still fun anyway. We also walked to Muncie Frozen Custard (just opened for the season and only a hop, skip, and a jump away from our apartment) for ice cream (or custard, if you are particular). It was a lovely anniversary, and we even celebrated in the traditional way: with paper. Blake drew me a picture, and I made him a handmade book with a poem inside.

I realized something as we sat in that café. People in general really are more the same than they are different. A few weeks ago I received word that my brother, Tyler, who is just younger than me and about to be married, was very, very sick. He had this golf-ball sized growth on the side of his neck. Well, everyone’s first thought was that it might be cancer. So he went to the doctor and had some tests done, and thankfully it turned out to just be badly swollen lymph nodes. At home he was given a priesthood blessing and he has since been recovering nicely. When Blake and I went out to celebrate our anniversary, the Christian band who performed sort of bore their testimonies of various things in between each number. One of their testimonies was regarding the youngest singer in the group who, when she was 8 years old, shortly after God told her that she should sing, became very, very sick. In fact, as they described her illness, it turned out to be exactly what Tyler had. I perked up as I noticed some interesting similarities: my brother was given a priesthood blessing, she was blessed by her pastor, both people and their loved ones relied heavily on their Heavenly Father for healing and comfort, both could now bear testimony of the fact that divine help aided in their recovery. The only thing that really separated us was the fact that we enjoy a fullness of the Gospel. I thought, wow, we really are more alike than we are different. I really have no right, if I were to teach the gospel to this family, to tear down their beliefs until I could provide them the fullness that we enjoy. We have more in common that I think meets the eye on first glance.

Easter

Today is my sister, Katie’s, 17^th birthday. So if you happen to see her, tell her happy birthday.

I hope you all had a nice Easter. We did. We R-U-N-N-O-F-T to Mascoutah, Illinois to visit Uncle Dwight and Aunt Bethany and family. It was great fun -- and a much needed break from both Muncie and regular life. My cousins are getting so big! George is 9 now and is getting really tall. Clark is 5 and is a very happy and often distracted boy. Both of them just loved playing with Blake...I think Blake has become their newest hero, mostly because he can do cool "magic" tricks and will play games with them to their hearts content. (He really is a good sport and deserves much recognition for his never-ending energy.) And last of all is Baby William who is 9 months and just crawling and pulling himself up on furniture. He's absolutely adorable, and such a happy baby. He loves to show off his flirty smile. :) We got to go roller skating with them on Saturday...we all had to re-teach ourselves how to roller-skate, but by the end all of us had improved dramatically. And Sunday we ate Easter dinner with them and another little family from their ward. We drove back Sunday night amidst another dramatic mid-western storm. The hard rain made it difficult to see much, but the lightning show alone was worth that tense drive. It was amazing and all purpley-pretty.

Activity Days is getting exciting. Last Wednesday we learned how to write thank you notes and about good table manners. It went absolutely swimmingly – they were much better behaved than they have been at previous activities (and by better behaved I mean they kept their giggles under control and actually paid attention). I feel like I’m actually starting to succeed at this calling. Anyway, to follow up with our manners activity, and because Sister Batman, my partner, has excellent connections, we are going to get to practice what we learned next Wednesday as we eat a dinner at the Delaware Country Club. Oh Fun! I’ll let you know how it goes.

A Beginning of Sorts

Well, I’m doing it. I’m breaking down and starting a blog. I guess technology really is creeping into my veins. Well, here goes, I guess.

To start, let’s catch up, shall we? In April 2005 I got married to Blake in the Manti temple (one day after we both walked for graduation -- it was a crazy week! -- but it was beautiful nonetheless). We spent the summer living in Provo, and then at the end of July we high-tailed it out of there and moved to Muncie, Indiana so Blake could begin a masters program in cognitive psychology at Ball State University. We are still here in Muncie and are currently learning how to battle tornadoes and other forms of severe weather. We do enjoy it here, although I have to say that I sorely miss my mountains...it's entirely too flat here. But rumor has it that the corn will get planted soon, and that will add some sort of backdrop to the landscape. :) I got a job here, not teaching history or English as one would have thought or I would have hoped, but doing economic development work in an office on the Ball State campus (who knew there was even such a career field as economic development?). It's a good job and I'm glad to have it. We'll be in Muncie at least until Blake graduates in May 2007; after that, honestly, who knows where we'll be. But at the moment, Blake is seriously considering several Ph.D. programs, which he'll apply to this fall. We'll keep you posted.

Let's see, what else? Well, the Muncie 1st ward is keeping us on our toes. Blake was called in December to be the ward executive secretary. I'm currently serving as a teacher and literacy specialist in Relief Society, as well as the Activity Days leader (the female equivalent to Cub Scouts in Primary). Oh, and I had a 7ish week stint teaching early morning seminary while the regular teacher recovered from some health problems... that was an experience, to say the least. The ward here is great...we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. In other church-y news, we enjoyed watching conference this last weekend, but are still getting used to the fact that we have to enjoy it on wooden pews at 12:00 and 4:00 in Sunday clothes instead of soft couches at 10:00 and 2:00 in pajamas. :)

Huh, well, I guess that about sums up life for us in Muncie.

PS: I'm happy to report that the citizens of Indiana survived their first transition to daylight savings time...it was a little shaky there for a while, but they've pulled through, just like I thought they would.