"...you've never seen, so they tell me, such downright domesticity..."

I decided last Sunday to make a blanket for my beau, Taylor, for Christmas. That night I did a little research, settled on a rag quilt, and designed the pattern. Then after school on Monday, I went to the fabric store, bought everything I needed, showed up at my mom's house, and announced that I was going to make a blanket in three days, since Taylor was leaving on Friday morning. If it had been any other project that intense that hadn't involved a sewing machine my mom would have tried to talk me out of it. However, since my mom has been dreaming of my being a seamstress extraordinaire since my childhood days, she jumped right in to help me. (Isn't she amazing?) There is no way in hades I could have finished it without her. Mom saves the day again!

On Monday we cut out all the squares, Tuesday we sewed each square together with the batting in the middle, and Wednesday we sewed it all together and clipped the seams so it would fray up. I also need to give a shout-out to my amazing cousin-in-law Janelle (who left the next day to move to Boston with my amazing cousin Scott) and my amazing sister-in-law Jenny (here visiting from Texas) who helped with all the snipping. It would have taken FOREVER by myself. I definitely miss having Jenny live close, and I'm surely going to miss having Scott and Janelle around— they're two of my favorites.

Here is my finished product, or at least half of it:

Taylor loved it. Isn't he a lucky boy to have such a domestic girl?

And since I got it in your head, here's the clip of the song. Enjoy.

Good King Wenceslas

Ever since Mr. Harvie, my elementary school choir teacher, (I've been mentioning him a lot lately) introduced me to all of the verses of this song, it has been one of my favorites. Before then, I thought it was kind of a weird Christmas song. It is a great story of a leader and a mentor. Take a little read:

Sad Day

As I was celebrating my last day of school, I received news that the Provo Tabernacle had burned down. I suspect that most of my blog readers are familiar with the building and I suspect that many of you have tender feelings about it. It was a beautiful building and a monument to all of the pioneers who helped build this wonderful valley.

Many of us that have spent a lot of time in the valley have warm memories of the Tabernacle. I have attended countless meetings and concerts in the building. Here are a few memories I have:

When I was in the Northridge Elementary Chorus, we were invited to perform at a Christmas concert there. There were several choirs that sang. We had a bus driver that had requested to take us on every route. He liked us because our director made us be absolutely silent on the bus ride there to save our voices, plus he loved listening to us sing. He knew that if we got a standing ovation, Mr. Harvie would come back out and we would sing an encore. So after our set, a man sitting on the balcony in suspenders stood up amidst the clapping, and the rest of the audience followed. We felt pretty special because we were the only ones to receive a standing ovation that night. We obliged the bus driver (and the audience) with an encore.

I've been to several Stake Conferences there, including one when I was in a BYU Stake. My roommate and dear friend Shalon had curled her hair up all pretty, and it was quite bouncy. One of our more scandalous friends in our ward told Shalon she'd pay her $10 (or some sum of money) to walk up the aisle to the bathroom (the bathrooms were in the front of the building) so her curls would bounce. Shalon was hard up for cash at the time, so she took the dare. I laughed as I saw the girls sitting in front of us making fun of Shalon.

On a more spiritual note, I attended a Stake Conference when I was in that same stake with Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, then a member of the Presidency of the Seventy. He quoted Harry Potter in his talk, which we thought was pretty awesome. Afterward we went up and shook his hand, and he was very kind.

                                                                                                                  

Here are a few images of the fire. Warning: If you feel any sort of attachment to the building, they might make you cry.