Vegas - Savior of the World

I know that I am super behind in my blogging and I am trying to catch up as much as I can. I had a friend say "oh I read your blog and you are always so busy!" - Really? Apparently I need to start blogging about the days where I wear my work out clothes all day (for lack of a shower) and watch a mini series all day. - That would show how stimulating my life really is. hehe. Anyways, enough of the rant. Cadence was off track and we filled a good 4-5 days in Vegas. It was a good distraction for us, and also Kris (my sister) was in a musical called The Savior of the World. So all in all we had some good reasons to go for a road trip.

This is Cadence (above) with her Cousin, who is only 6 but the two got along really well. Not sure who that speaks more about. This little dress she has on is one I made her for her birthday, cute huh?

Our days were filled with leisure, and I loved it! The second day we were there it reached 90 - and we went swimming. This was Cadence's main goal for going - to swim. The other days I should mention, were blustery and windy and overcast, but the Cadence still swam, just without me.

I know Kris felt apologetic for being so busy while we were there, but we did not mind at all. We ate out at super yummy restaurants, went shopping, I read an entire book, and I might have even snuck in a little nap. I would never have been able to do those things at home, I would be too concerned with garden, house etc. It was a great relaxing time!

The main reason for our trip was to see Kris sing in the LDS musical Savior of the World. I was really proud of Kris for auditioning for something and taking a chance. The musical is focused on the people around Jesus, chronicling his arrival and his departure, it was very moving.

I was really impressed, the musical was well done, professional and featured a lot of great voices. And yes these photos were taken during the show with my flash photography, so bad, but I got a great shot of my sister, and of the ensemble cast in the final song.

What's in a name?

When I was younger, I overheard a conversation my father had with someone in our church. The man said to my dad, "Keith, I appreciate your job, because your title tells me everything." My dad is an architect. We all know the first and foremost small talk question is "What do you do?" And in this day and age, does the job title tell us anything? There are so many crazy job tittles out there that I can understand what a relief it is when you ask someone this and they tell you something like "a teacher" "a plumber" or "an architect". These days it seems that a plumber would no longer be called a plumber - maybe an intake and outtake fluid specialist. Sound better to me too.

So with the hubby's new job, came a new title. Frankly I am not sure what his last one was, it was something like Data Warehouse Architect - uh huh I have no idea either, and when he got promotions, they would add extra words on like manager or director, which some off you might now that he only managed himself, unless you count those people in India. I usually ended up telling people that my husband worked with computers, programming and what not. Well now he is not even programming so I think I have to stop saying that, especially since he is not in the IT department anymore. So enough stalling, what is his title? Junior BioInformatist! I am probably not even spelling it right - oh well. I told him this is what I am going to tell people right of the bat, because really how would you respond to this? "What does your husband do?" "Oh my husband? he is just a junior bioinformatists but we are crossing our fingers he becomes a senior!" Really so confusing these days. And no I do not really know what it means, but you can buy the BioInformatist for Dummies book.

Let see what Wikipedia has to say - "Bioinformatics is the application of statistics and computer science to the field of molecular biology." hmm sounds impressive though doesn't it? I think I need to start wearing fancy dresses to the grocery store, hosting Tupperware parties and drinking long island ice teas, or maybe that is the 50's housewife stereotype (don't know why I went there).

Sigh - My title you might ask (ok I know you didn't) - Senior Event Captain - So do I trump his Junior since I am a Senior?

MS Walk

This is the Team - Team Help Momma - the team that we walked with and fundraised for. Can you see Cadence? Or Me? Well me neither but we are there. This was for a girl in our Girl Scout Troop - whose Grandma is inflicted with this devastating disease. Cadence was a great fundraiser - she really threw herself into this and raised a little over 300 dollars! She donated $50 of her own. We were pretty proud of her. The walk started at the Gateway mall - and we were off with great spirits!

This is Cadence's back, and I will save you the suspense - the walk started to get pretty painful for everyone all around. Painful for the kids since 3.5 miles is pretty long, and it was pretty sunny and hot - and painful for the adults since we had to stop and take many breaks and there were more then a few whines and complaints. Long story short, this 5K walk took us 2 hours. yep. However, this was really rewarding and Cadence exclaimed after how proud she was of herself.

The girls were allowed the chance to volunteer some of there time, putting together the goodie bags with snacks and water, and also blowing up the helium balloons that people were given to release. The girls were great and really liked getting into the spirit of everything, and they were also working on their disability patch.

Even Sushi got into the mix and ended up walking for the cure!

Now I have been asked why we have decided to get behind this cause, and on this walk I really had some time to think about my motivation, partly because at the beginning they handed us note cards for us to fill out that prompted you to finish the statement "I walk because..." and I wanted to really think about what I would write. Like I said above this walk was rewarding and emotional, there were plenty of people that you could tell were obviously affected by this disease. There were many people using canes and walkers and leg braces, but they were still walking! I could see many families rallying around an individual, cheering them on and supporting them. I could see the pain in their faces, at the physical toll it was taking on their bodies, but they kept going, they wanted to walk because they still could. They were going to push their bodies for as long as they still could. At one point in front of us, one man was crossing a pretty big intersection, and his legs went out from underneath him and he went down hard. Many people rushed to help him, and he shooed them away claiming "he could do it". He got himself up and kept on going, obviously in pain. I really was so touched, and I knew that I would fill out my card, "I walk because I never want to take for granted the strength and ability that God has given me." I don't always take care of my body like I should, I drink way too much diet soda, and don't exercise regularly, and I love (love) food. This was a touching reminder of how much I do take for granted, that my legs are going to work when I get up in the morning, that I can run and dance, if I would just will it. I keep all this in mind, and all that I have been given, and I don't have to think very hard as to why I fundraise for MS.

Two Weeks Off Track

Super negligent I know! we have been so busy the last few weeks that I think I forgot to breath... anywho Cadence was off track for two weeks, always a source of aggravation for me, but we did some pretty fun things in that two weeks. First up we met up with the Dahls, our old neighbors from South Salt Lake, whom we miss dearly living next door to them. Cute Ezra is still in preschool and so he has more free time then most friends, so we took a tour of the Sweet Candy Factory together. We had to wear hair nets and stay in the yellow lines, but there were plenty of free samples! Yea why haven't I been here before?

On another day we went with our girl scout troop on a tour of the Hale theater. The Hale theater has been a tradition in my family since before I was born I think (it's called the Glendale Theater in LA, and then Hale family retired to Utah and opened another one!), so we were pretty excited for this field trip. Unfortunately my excitement outstripped the actual event, but it was still fairly interesting. The tour guide talked on (forever!) but she did have the girls do some fun improv activities which Cadence really got into, especially when she was singled out for her wonderful catwalk and got to demonstrate it for everyone. We also got to go down in the stage area, where they were practicing the stage (the Hale theater stage goes up and down and turns in circles) and then some actors came out and practiced their sword fighting for the play that was currently showing, which was none other then "The Three Musketeers"!

I still have pictures of Cadence's MS walk, going to Vegas and the Hollywood Connection Sleepover, but I think those all merit separate posts.