Think of me . . .

As you're all sleeping in your nice warm beds, taking your nice warm showers, and eating your fresh refrigerated food, you can think of me at girls camp, not doing those things. But it will be good (right?), and I promise next week I will finally post about our July adventures (brace yourselves--there's a lot!).

My tribute to MJ

In tribute to Michael Jackson I say Disney bring it back:

American Radio Cafe

I'm playing this show--doesn't it look fun? I'm telling you, it is! And would I lie to you? Never! And should I write another sentence with a question mark followed by a sentence with an exclamation point? Absolutely!

But really, this is going to be a great production, so if you are looking for something to do during the patriotic holiday come on over to the Covey Center. Ticket information is here.

And on a somewhat random note, I realized something about myself at yesterday's rehearsal: I have a hard time equating money with music. Not in the sense that if you become a musician you'll never earn any money (although that sometimes may be the case), but more in the sense that I feel like I shouldn't be earning money when I'm playing music because I love it so much. I even sometimes feel guilty for taking money for my teaching because I like that so much too!

This realization came to me after one of the ladies asked another violinist if we were getting paid for the rehearsals as well as the shows; upon learning that we were paid for rehearsals she asked why we were not paid more for the rehearsals since they were longer. And at that point it just hit me: "Are you really doing this for the money? Do you care more about whether the check comes or whether the production goes well?" And for my part, I definitely am more concerned about the outcome of the show than the outcome of my wallet. So I'm definitely not going to get rich with that attitude, but that's just how I feel. A result of years of unpaid work as a student I guess.

See you at the show!

A Hero

*I just discovered a blog of someone who is a real-life hero in my eyes. Anthony (1st Sergeant) Martinez. I've added the link to his blog on my blog-roll, and you can access it here.

Anthony is currently serving in Iraq, for the ???? time (I honestly don't remember if this is the first time or if this is a return visit). You should read his blog. Anthony has an amazing sense of humor as well as an amazing ability to make you feel. (I realize that sounds like an incomplete sentence, but I hate to try and qualify it too much--perhaps you know what I mean.)

How do I know Anthony? He was in my ward growing up. He and his wife Maryann served many times in the Young Women and Young Men organizations and other things associated with mutual. They were the types of leaders that were also your best friends. They thought you were cool to talk to and they made no division between teaching moments and fun moments. Church lessons were entertaining. And activities, like hanging out with them at the Register's, often turned into "Aha!" learning moments.

When I was a teenager Anthony was stationed in Bosnia. For a long time. I don't know how he did it. I don't know how Maryann did it. I think he may have gone back more than once. But he was so positive, and Maryann was so positive. I remember being so excited when he came back to visit for a few days. And I remember being even more excited when he came back for good. I think Maryann painted his car in camouflage as a surprise for his return.

Several years ago Maryann passed away due to complications with the diabetes she had been struggling with for years. I remember at the viewing he was smiling and making everyone feel so good. When I walked through the line he said to me something like, "Doesn't she look just like an angel? She looks so happy." And all I could do was smile back and agree with him. I don't know how he did it.

Awhile after Maryann passed away, he met another amazing woman--Angie. They fell in love and got married. They now have 3 adorable children (I just met them for the first time yesterday). And now he's in Iraq, and I don't know how he's doing it. I don't know how Angie does it. But I'm so grateful that they are willing to put everything on the line to serve for our country. I'll never know all the fear and the heartache and the loneliness that both of them must experience, but I am inspired by them. My heart and my prayers are with them and everyone like them.

*Please feel free to correct any mistakes Kayla. My brain is so fuzzy.

They made me laugh

Here are 3 funny stories from last week (and just as a note, Royce was supposed to blog about the last one, but he's distracted by his brother being in town, so I'm blogging about it--so if it's not funny blame Royce!):

1. Royce and I signed up for a 30-day trial membership for a travel club through our bank. By signing up for the trial membership, we could send away for a free camcorder. It's probably a terrible camcorder, but it's free so nothing lost, right? Anyway, I was calling said travel club to cancel our membership before the free trial was up--no way am I going to be one of those people who plans on canceling and then totally forgets and ends up paying a useless fee for a month or two! The conversation went a little something like this:

Heather: "Hi, I'm calling to cancel our membership."
Jerome: "I understand ma'am. What is the reason you want to cancel?"
Heather: "We're never going to use it."
Jerome: "Ok. I definitely understand. But I see that you haven't gone on any trips and you or all of your friends could travel with us and you would get a million dollars cash back for every trip that you book through us and I would hate to see it all go to waste so I'm going to go ahead and keep your membership active, ok?"
Heather: "Ummmm, no, I really do want to cancel it. If I don't cancel it now I'll forget and I don't want to pay you any money whatsoever. I want to cancel during the free trial."
Jerome: "Yes, I understand that ma'am. I just want to let you know that you also get $5,000,000 cash back for groceries if you send in your receipts and your life will be changed and you'll gain a testimony of our program, so I'm going to go ahead and keep your membership active, ok?"
Heather: "No. Please cancel my membership."
Jerome: "I definitely understand that ma'am. I'm going to go ahead and send you through to our cancellation people."

It was one of the greatest conversations ever--he was so smooth at trying to make me not realize what he was doing. I bet old people get trapped by him all the time!

2. I got a fortune that said: "You should be able to be successful in anything you set your mind to . . . . "
3. Because Royce's brother has been in town, we decided to go to Lagoon last week.

After we had been riding rides for a couple of hours, Royce and Rhett decided to go on the Rocko-planes. For you non-Lagooners, they're these purple and pink cages that go round and round like a ferris wheel, and on top of that you can actually spin them forward and backward and upside-down. Not for me!

So after they loaded and had gone around a few times, I noticed that Royce and Rhett were the only ones not rocking. So I tried calling Royce on his phone to see what was up, but he didn't answer. Right after that he saw me below and tried to get my attention. I'm horrible at reading hand signals and lips, so I yelled for him to text me. So he called (my phone was supposed to be dead so he didn't think it was an option) and informed me that Rhett had thrown up and I needed to tell the attendant to let them off. Apparently it didn't smell too good and Royce was starting to get nauseous too. So I ran up the ramp that says, "Exit only!!! Do not enter!!!" and said to the ride attendant,

"They need to get off. He threw up." After she looked at me blankly with no response, I repeated, "You need to stop the ride and let them off! He puked. . . He threw up."

Still looking somewhat confused, she asked, "What number are they in?"

"Number 8--right there!" as I pointed for the 3rd time.

"Ok."

Trusting that she understood my message finally, I walked back down the ramp to wait for Royce and Rhett. Not wanting to embarrass Rhett, I started walking away from the ride as soon as Royce and Rhett were off the ramp as well. But as Royce and I looked back, we noticed that rather than calling to have the compartment cleaned or just shutting that one up, she was actually loading two teenage girls into the same compartment Royce and Rhett had been in! What the . . . ? Apparently she didn't understand the words puke and throw-up?! I'm sure those girls had a fun ride! As Royce so vividly imagined it, they were rocking back and forth and having so much fun while meanwhile puke is dripping into their hair. Yeah, sorry--I'm sure you didn't need that image. Let's just hope they recognized that there was throw-up in there and didn't rock at all!

In shape

When Royce decides he wants to do something, he does it all the way. Most recently, he decided we really needed to take part in BYU's fitness challenge (for every challenge you complete, they give you $25!). So the challenge is to walk 8,000 steps a day for 2-3 months, or do something that equals that amount of steps. Royce faithfully puts his pedometer on in the morning and forces me to walk instead of drive places. So we've been taking walks around our neighborhood, walking to the grocery store, and the most surprising for both of us, walking to the Provo rec center to go swimming.

Now, I've been talking for months about how we both need to go swimming to strengthen our shoulders and back, etc. I didn't think he was ever going to go for it. But on Monday, he pulled out our swimming suits and said, "Let's go." I was excited.

We ended up getting a 6-month membership, which I'm hoping will help motivate us when we don't want to go. We went on Monday and Wednesday to do laps, and yesterday, we went and did . . .


. . . Water Aerobics!

Royce was such a good sport being the only guy in the class. We both thought it was really fun though (and really tiring). I'm hoping we'll do that once a week now--it's a nice change of pace from lap-swimming. We're also hoping to spend 1 or 2 days a week in the weight room, so watch out ya'll. We're going to get buff!

Musings on our recent travels

My Favorite Things
1. Seeing my cute parents
2. Kissing my hubby in France (yes, that kind of kissing . . .)
3. The German and Czech country-side as viewed from the train/car
4. Gelato
5. Playing games with Royce’s family on public transportation—Charades, Bubblegum, Telephone, I Spy, etc.
6. Walking to and from Neuschwanstein Castle
7. French people that actually went out of their way to help us
8. The garden maze at Schönbrunn Palace
9. Sitting at some famous park in Paris for a long, long time
10. The trick fountains at Hellbrunn—it was nice and hot, so the water splashing on us was quite pleasant
11. Sliding in the salt mines
12. Sight-seeing in Notre Dame during the middle of Mass

What I missed the most
1. Drinking fountains
2. My car
3. Convenient grocery stores that are open all the time
4. Breakfast cereal with cold milk
5. Cell phones
6. Visible street and highway signs
7. Italian food
8. Shade (I’m bringing my umbrella next time!)
9. American TV
10. Royce (when I was home, and he was still in Europe)

Why our next vacation will be a cruise
1. Only have to book one “hotel”
2. Therefore, you only have to unpack and pack once
3. Don’t have to wonder if there’s any food nearby
4. Also don’t have to try to find a cheap and good place to eat
5. Free entertainment in the evenings
6. Don’t have to take public transportation
7. Not nearly as much walking and standing on your feet
8. Go to sleep in one city, wake up in another!