Is It Naptime Yet

Last week I went to my 10 year high school reunion. I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it, but it turned out to be lots of fun.

I went with my friend Tiffany Keegan because I didn’t want to buy two over-priced tickets that would pay for alcohol we wouldn’t be drinking. The joys of an open bar at events like these. Jon also thought I would have more fun without him, since I have a tendency to worry about him and how he’s doing at things like this. I asked around on Facebook and convinced Tiffany to go with me, since she didn’t want to go alone but wanted to attend. Tiffany and I have known one another since we were 9 and even though we haven’t been constant, close, friends this whole time, we didn’t even hang out in high school except when we had classes together, but she is definitely my longest friend. As we drove over to the reunion together, it was obvious time had past, but we also felt so comfortable around one another that it hadn’t mattered. We talked, joked, reminisced, and enjoyed seeing each other. I loved seeing here and hearing about her family that I was once knew intimately.

We arrived right on time, and finding out who to talk to was a little odd at first. Overall, the reunion seemed to be a lot of people I did not know well in high school, but there were a few gems in the crowd which made it all worth it and I enjoyed seeing people in person, rather than just seeing what they were up to over Facebook.

I would say the highlight of my night was seeing my old friend Royi Moas. Royi and I had a huge flirtation/crush on one another our senior year, but it never went anywhere. (I’m a sucker for intelligent guys who listen, and the summer before our senior year we hung out a lot when I was house-sitting and he listened to me ramble on about a missionary I was writing and I made it “painfully obvious” that I would not date Royi, or even if I did, I had this other guy whom I thought I would marry. So, I don’t really blame him for not dating me. I don’t think I’d date me either after I think about it.) I’m actually happy it didn’t go anywhere because there were no odd, old boyfriend vibes, just wonderful to see one anther vibes. His super sweet fiance later told me I was on his list of people who he wanted to see, so I felt special.

I also loved seeing and hearing what class mates where up to. It was interesting to see who they had become/ were becoming. One of my biggest surprises was a classmate who is now a server at Ceasar’s and married to a cocktail waitress. It’s not so surprising that this would happen, but I never imagined this guy, in this scenario. (Brian Kong is his name since I will probably not remember who later, and she was the cutest/nicest cocktail waitress I’ve ever seen.)

I didn’t take a lot of photos, but they had a photographer there so I was able to lift a few from her site.

Me in my dress with Lilah.
Story behind the dress: I needed something “formal,” but totally could have gotten away with my black dress, but now I’m prepared for a real formal, and I love shopping. I found this dress at Savers for $20, bought and made the bolero for $23, and had to clean it for $12. I found it ironic that a $20 dress started to add up so quickly. I like it long, but wish I had shortened it because I felt like a nun in my long dress compared to what other people were wearing, and might still do so. I am also glad I left it long because I didn’t realize I hadn’t shaved till I went to put lotion on that night. Yeah, that would not have been cute.
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Kristen Routh (one of our valedictorians), and her boyfriend Joseph Henle (an up and coming UFC fighter), and me. Never would I imagine her with a UFC fighter, which he wasn’t at first, but they make the cutest and most perfect couple.
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Adam Mills, me, and Tiffany Keegan. (I wish I had gotten one with just her and me at some time, but did not.)
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Me and Royi.
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This is Jeremiah, Stephanie Sandford’s husband, and Adam London, Alana Isbell’s husband and what happens when you ask a friend’s husband to take a picture? He takes a picture of himself and who’s by him. Silly Adam.
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Me, Allan Smith, Alana London, and Stephanie Sanford.
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Pictures the photographer took:

Stephanie, Me, Tiffany, Amanda Morrisey, and Katy Brown.
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The story behind me in the above picture.: So I was talking with some friends and a classmate hands me her camera as she pulls in two of the people I was talking to in for a picture. I was getting ready to see what she wanted me to take a picture of when a husband of one of the friends takes the camera from me and says I should get in the picture. Now I knew the girl, but I wasn’t close friends with her at all. So this picture is taken by a few cameras and the photographer that was hired for the event. Then the photographer is like, “Give me a cheer!” and I realized it was a picture of all the cheerleaders! What makes this picture even funnier to me is the one who had handed me her camera is actually giving me a side ways look, and is probably wondering what the heck I’m doing in the frame. I had the husband take one more without me in it, so the cheerleader had the photo she had wanted originally, and though the other pictures the photographer took were not as nice, she still got one that did not include me with all the other cheerleaders.
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Alana, me, Katy, Stephanie, and Danielle Henrie.

After the night ended I brought Tiffany back to my place to get her car. We talked a little longer then I changed and met some friends for karaoke. It was lots of fun, except all the smoke. It was a bar only, so it was full of smokers and I literally wanted to throw up afterwards because the smell was so bad. (It was terrible in the place, but for some reason it was even worse after.) I even took a shower at 2 am and if you know me, you know I hate taking showers only 7 hours later, since I had to take one before church, because the smell was that bad.

I initially wrote this for my blog, but since I was seeing the quote on Facebook, I decided to put it as a note on there also. I wanted my friends who had been posting the quote to possibly see it, but not hijack their comment thread. A friend gave me a link to a wonderful blog post, who said it much more eloquently than me. I suggest you read mine, then hers, because then mine just sounds really lame if you read it second, where if you read mine first, it just sounds less lame once you read the other one.

I’ve been seeing this quote on Facebook:

Girls are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. The boys don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the ground that aren’t as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they’re amazing. They just have to wait for the right boy to come along. The one who’s brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

First, there are two ways to ways to look at this quote.

I’ll go with the more shallow interpretation first. For some girls it takes longer to be picked, or married, so easy lying apples, get married first.

So I’m an easy apple because I was married young, like super young, at 18.

I would never say I know what it’s like to be single for a long time, because I was single for all of 3 months of marrying age before I was dating someone, then engaged 1 month later and married 5 months after that, but I would say I’m sure being single stinks at times, and is hard, but I’m sure it also has it’s fun times. To every situation there are bads and there are goods. To every quote that lifts one group of people, there are some it hurts, or offends.

The second interpretation is more deep and I’ll give credit to Jon, who pointed out how unChrist-like the quote really is.

So who are the easy or rotten apples? Are these apples not really children of God who deserve our love and compassion? Should we judge the easy picked apples, or should we still love them? Can’t these rotten apples become new apples again through repentance?

I know the point of this metaphor is probably to make sure girls stay chaste before marriage and to feel good when they’re finally picked, but it mostly sounds like. “Don’t be a rotten or easy apple, no one will want to pick you once they bit into you and see a worm, or once you start decaying because you were picked early.” It also makes the girls who are higher on the tree, look down their noses to those who are lower, or have been easy pickings.

Then what about these boys who pick the easy apples? Are they some jerk, or deserve our condemnation because they didn’t reach higher? Do they have any accountability? So often we leave chastity to the girls, but boys play a part in chastity also.

It’s like the object lesson of ABC gum, no one whats a piece of gum that’s already been chewed. I hate this object lesson because it completely leaves out repentance. We have repentance because we sin, and don’t we all have need to repent, and we are not here to judge, but to show love and compassion?

I think we can help young people make choices because they’re right choices, not because they fear they’ll be judged as some easy apple, or ABC gum. I also think we need to be more compassionate to the feelings of those who have made poor choices, because they are also children of God.

A while back I was cleaning my house, no really, I did and now I’ve stopped cleaning, it’s just easier that way, and I came across stuff I had borrowed, but hadn’t returned. I moved it to a cupboard we have right by our door, and have returned most of it, but there are a few things I’ve yet to give to their rightful owners. (Sadly, they all belong to family members.)

I’m thinking we’ve all had moments like this, where we borrow something, and due to either knowing the person, or it never being convenient to return, we held onto it a little longer than we should have, or maybe we just plum forgotten. Then we sheepishly return it because we borrowed that book over a year ago, or maybe the person even called to ask for it back, and you felt so silly hanging onto it because you had finished using it weeks, or even months, ago.

Speaking of forgetting, I was an air head twice last week, two days in a row, and for both I was supposed to have been giving service.

The first: I was supposed to pick up peaches for me and a friend. They’re from a farmer in Utah, and they do drop-offs at a local chapel that happens to be across town. She asked if I would pick them up, like three times, which should have been a huge warning sign that I had forgotten each time, and then of course, I forgot that night. It turns out it may have been a blessing in disguise, that just cost me a couple month’s allowance, because neither of us had time to can them last week, the week they came in, and now her 2 year old is super sick, and I imagine it would have been a huge burden for her. (She offered to cut me a break on the costs, but I paid her the full amount because it was my fault that we didn’t get the peaches.) I felt so bad when I realized I had forgotten and couldn’t apologize enough. It’s OK when I forget things for me, but you hate when you forget for someone else.

Fail one.

Second: I was asked to make dinner for a single sister in our ward who had back surgery. I put it on my google calendar, and thought I had set it to remind me through e-mail, but apparently had not. I totally forgot till I was reading a blog about a woman bringing dinner for a friend who was sick. I called her at 8 o’clock that night to make sure she had enough food, and fortunately her sister had been helping her and she was fine. I once more felt so terrible, even more so because I had woken her up.

Fail two.

Of course, we have times where we get things back to someone on time, and we’re able to give service because we don’t forget, but it stinks when we don’t.

So Eden had her birthday in July and her party in August, but uh, well due to wanting to post everything about our trip I didn’t post anything about her birthday, and then I got distracted and just forgot.

Mom Fail.

So before I start neglecting my blog once more, I thought I’d post some information and pictures of the events.

Eden’s birthday fell on the day Jon returned to work from our vacation. I don’t think we did much that day, but we did enjoy a meal of some of her favorite food, and then some I added because she just wanted salad, her favorite food. We had salmon patties, watermelon, salad, and some yummy huckleberry soda we brought back from Montana. We then enjoyed some cupcakes for her cake, but like my July Highlights said, Eden had decided to begin eating her birthday cupcake before we could sing to her. So she got two that night.

Lilah and I also purchased some flowers for Eden’s birthday, something that’s become a tradition.

We had Eden’s party later in August, and on a Wednesday night because our weekends filled up rather quickly. We did a simple swimming party at the Zurflue’s, who were in town, but not home for most of the night. They were nice enough to let us crash their place. We invited friends and family and enjoyed some yummy food and let the kids swim. There was a small threat of a storm, which stressed me out because I had planned no activities since it was in the evening and for a shorter time than our day ones, plus I had just returned from vacation and was too stressed out to think of anything to do. I made her a cake with a swan on it because she wanted a Swan Princess party, but with it not being a popular Disney film, there wasn’t much I could actually do. It was Eden’s idea that I just put a simple swan on her cake, which I was very happy to do.

It was a simple gathering, but it lots of fun to celebrate Eden as she turned one year older.

Eden with her birthday meal and flowers.
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Eden’s expression makes me laugh. Six candles on one small cupcake.
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Eden’s Swan cake.
Insert silly Lacey story: I had my friend, Sam, pick the cake up and bring it because I’d be traveling to the house alone and didn’t want to just have it on the seat or floor of my car. (Her husband came so she could hold it on her lap.) I took a picture of it at my house because I could see them getting in some accident and the cake being ruined. I always think of worse case scenario’s.
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Swimming!
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Cute Birthday Girl!

(Due to not having swim lessons, the play, and being out of town so much, we only went swimming twice this summer. Lilah’s birthday and Eden’s party.)
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More swimming!
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I love Lilah’s arm around Eden.
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Present time!
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Eden loves Zhu Zhus!

I can’t believe Eden is six years old. Of course I was calling her six months before her birthday, but that’s my silly brain for you.

I’m so happy to be your mom Eden, and I love watching you grow!

Lilah:

You woke up at 7 am and heard me give Daddy a good morning kiss and said, “Wait!”, thinking it was a good-bye kiss. I told you it was still early and to go back to sleep. Then you slept till 9 and really did miss Daddy’s good-bye kiss.

Telling me about Eden taking too much cereal. When I didn’t care, and you thought it unfair, you decided nobody loved you. I’m not ready for a teenager yet.

Not wanting to dance at Zumba because your finger hurt, and the air moving around it made it worse.

Holding Eden’s hand to take her to the bathroom for me while at the store.

Obsessing over Mario Cart, again. Being so excited that you unlocked Mirror Cup.

Playing dress up with Eden and almost always being her servant, while she was the princess. You were the one making up the story too.

Wanting to decorate for Halloween, in September.

Eden:

Teaching Daddy how to make a fort with our couch when it was turned sideways to replace the feet. He apparently didn’t know how, and you were the expert.

Hiding your cereal the morning Lilah had tattled on you taking too much. You apparently had not heard our conversation of me not caring,

Letting me borrow my pillow, that you have decided is yours, while my shoulder was hurting me.

You face when you saw your build-a-bear turned right side out after we had sewn him. You were so happy and excited.

You were writing in your creative writing journal you were asking for words like house, girl, then for the word unordinary., I thought you really meant something else, but that’s what you wanted. “The girl with the flying house was unordinary.”

You eat a lot of pecans, and in an effort to decrease your eating of them and help save us a little money, I asked you to eat only one handful a day. You had already enjoyed a handful one day, and I saw that you had a mouth full of some food. I asked what you were eating and you said walnuts.

Playing your recorder all evening long after you first day at co-op. You would have thought it was glued to your hand since you never put it down.

Jonathan:

Making me laugh late at night. “Blowing kisses”

You were sweaty and I didn’t want to touch you , so you said it was your “natural defense.” Of course I was trying to tickle you at the time.

I asked you what we should have for dinner, you said you didn’t know. I said you weren’t any help, and you pointed out all you had done and were going to still do that day: dishes, laundry, taking the girls out. So I told you you were a big help, and you then helped me decide we should have pancakes for dinner.