I'm a .........Writer?

Well folks, today is the day that I "come out" of the literary closet and own my late-night passion publicly. For the last few months I have been spending my child-free hours writing a novel as part of a writing group. I had started writing a little on my own, and before I knew it I had joined a writing group with three amazing ladies and a fantastic teacher (one of his students is the international best-selling author of Hush,Hush). I had also not intended on attempting a novel, but Caleb (our instructor) wouldn't let me hang back.

I started writing because once upon a time I was good at it, and found that regardless of current talent, I LOVE WRITING! I find myself daydreaming about my characters all the time, and I'm sure that the people I live with are sick of hearing about them. I'll crawl into bed at night and say to Troy, "You will never guess what just happened to my heroin! She is so amazing!" to which Troy responds with the courteous "Oh, yeah?" that I give him when he starts his gun-speak. I have been really embarrassed to tell anyone, because I was afraid of what people would say or think, and that it would be embarrassing if I never got published but still called myself a "writer."


This weekend I went to a writer's conference in American Fork, and got totally called out on my unwillingness to claim my passion for writing by another student of my teacher who has now published multiple books. She said. "Sometimes admiting you're a writer feels like telling people you think you're a princess. Who cares?! Tell people anyway. If you don't treat yourself like a writer, you'll never be one, and you'll NEVER get published. " So, here I am, telling all the people in my known world that I love to write, and whether or not I am ever published, I LOVE writing this book, and blog posts may be fewer and further between until I'm finished with it. Whew. That feels better.
This is a pic of me, Vicki from my group, and our teacher Caleb Warnock at the conference.

Power[ade] to the People

When it comes to Powerade and bottled waters, Troy is a heavy drinker. On hot days, his blood-powerade levels reach dangerous levels, and I would not be surprised to see him sweating lemon-lime flavored droplets like in the commercials. So when Smiths put Powerade on sale for $0.25 a bottle, they might as well have been offering to hook him up intravenously. It was like that Ikea commercial where the mom plows onto the lawn with an Ikea semi (to the astonishment of her husband and son) and says "They're having a sale! .......I'm going back for more!" 16 cases later, we now have Powerade food storage. All in all, we spent $65.40 for $291.00 of Powerade. Not a bad deal. The next day Troy was bragging about his stockpile to a co-worker, to which she replied "16 cases? That's nothing. We got 64!" What the?!

Richardson Family Reunion

For the first time in living memory, the Richardson family held a reunion.  Since the Richardson family tree has more than a few redneck branches, we weren’t quite sure what to expect.  Whatever our expectations might have been, we weren’t disappointed. 

At the door we were asked to provide the first few lines of our family tree and a few other genealogical questions, then we were issued a weapon.  Granted they were nerf weapons, but I have never seen such an arsenal.  There were handhelds, single-shot, all the way up to semi-automatics with full belts of amo. 

Our barbeque buffet was sprinkled with nerf bullets and some light karaoke.  I met aunts and uncles for the first time in our 9 years of marriage.  These people live in Utah, mind you. 

It was very nice to see the family come together, and to hear stories of past family memories.  My two favorite parts of the evening were Uncle Kevin’s “I heart Magna” tee-shirt, and the fact that when we were about to take a picture of Grandma Richardson with her daughters, someone shouted “Wait, I gotta switch sides, I’m missing a tooth on this side!” 

It was an evening of family, fun, and entertainment and we can’t wait for the next one!

Spring Holidays

I've never been much of a trickster, my ability to keep a straight face while playing the part is pretty much non-existent. So yesterday for that day of all pranks, I finally got away with something! I diffused Troy's suspicions for the day with a silly little prank in the morning, and then started my plotting. I finally found an idea on the Family Fun website that I liked and got to work. My sister Sarah came over to help in the preparations and it was very helpful to have an accomplice- something I'll have to remember for future pranks.

So when Troy and Carolyn sat down to a delicious dinner of homemade chicken fingers and creamy sauce, they were far from expecting cornflake covered cookies and pudding. In Troy's defence, he may have been blinded by excitment that I had prepared something so completely unhealthy, but I was pretty excited when they dug in without hesitation. When their first bites gave it away, we laughed, I cleared the table and set up the real thing and we sat down to eat. A little bit later, Troy was confused by his inability to pour his drink into another cup, and realized that I had poured jello into all the cups. Haha! I think I'll start my plotting for next year early! Below are pictures of all the nuggets (fake and real) mixed together, and Troy's plate after his surprise. :)

For Easter, I started a new tradition this year that I am very excited about . At the last minute, I decided to put together a somewhat traditional Passover Feast/Last Supper for a few members of our family. I did some furniture re-arranging to create some "ambiance", prepared the food, and Aliyah helped me make window scenery to set the mood. One window was a view of Egypt, the other of Jerusalem. We sat around our table and talked about what each item of food symbolized, what Christ would have been experiencing at his last Passover feast, and enjoyed each other's company. The only bummer was that since our VHS player is broken, I was unable to host my annual viewing of Ben Hur (my very most favorite movie) after the festivities. More than anything, I enjoyed finding something to do that allowed me to spend more time with my family focusing on the real reason for Easter in a way that was fun and different. Troy enjoyed it too, but he gave me a warning that I was allowed creative license with easter/passover as long as it did not involve sheeps blood on the door posts or me expecting him to wash other people's feet. I guess it's not much to my credit that he has to make those kinds of distinctions..... :)

A Splash of COLOR

Well I can officially check one more thing off my "bucket-list." This weekend Troy and I went with Cam and Kelli Andersen to the Festival of Color at the Krishna Temple. It was the experience of a lifetime! It is the Hindu tradition for welcoming in spring, and in our opinion, a tradition worth keeping and passing on. Words can simply not portray the vibrance of the color, the exotic scent of the powder, the music, and the childish exhiliration of throwing color at perfect strangers.

We arrived early to enjoy a few hours of color splashing up near the temple, then went down to the pavilion for the big moment. With thousands of people gathered on the hill, they counted down from 20 to 1, when everyone released their powder at the same time. I took more pictures than I could ever post, but here are some of my favorites, from beginning to end.... (see if you can spot where I made my face an iconic graphic image on some unsuspecting kids tee-shirt)

As Long as We Both Shall Live?

Troy is currently in the market for a Revolver. He has been wanting one since we got married, and the bug has really got him now that we have two wee ones and camping season is once again upon us (or so he says.....). He is hoping to purchase an old family heirloom from the family friend it was sold to, but this revolver is a beast, a far cry from the short-barrel ones on the market today. He was going over the pros and cons with me (while I lovingly pretended to be interested) and we had the following conversation:

Troy: So the Ruger is easier to aim without a laser, but the Smith & Wesson has a laser grip attachment.
Me: Oh yeah?
Troy: Well that can make a big difference when a bear is coming at you and you don't have time to try and aim...... the laser would be nice.....
Me: Well the good news for me is that since I've been running lately, I'm pretty sure I could outrun you if you miss.
Troy: Hmmm, Not if I shoot you........

Seriously, I was taken so off-guard that I laughed until my face and sides hurt. That's what I get for marrying a man with such a practical brain. I guess I better start watching my back...

Snowed In

Decades ago, my great-grandfather built a two-story cabin out of cinderblock as a place for his family to enjoy the mountains that he loved so much. For years the cabin has been a place of summer and autumn fun, filled with hikes, barbeques, sleepovers and the occasional bat in the woodwork. But until this year, we have had very few winter memories at the cabin since cinderblock is not a great insulator, and it tends to be colder inside the cabin than out during the winter months.

This year, my dad and youngest brother Michael spent hours digging out our summer fire pit, and created a little Eskimo ampitheater for a little nordic barbeque action. It was a BLAST! We all showed up around dinner time and hunkered down in our open-air igloo. We roasted hot dogs, ate girl scout cookies (samoas.....mmmmh) and toasted some soft-ball sized Mexican Marshmallows. We cozied up around the fire until around 9:00 pm, and then decided that it was either go home, or stay the night. My dad only convinced us to go by promising that this was only the beginning of a tradition to be repeated in years to come. What can I say? I'm pretty sure my dad is the coolest. In fact, I'm willing to bet my dad's igloo is better than you're dad's igloo. ;)