Wonderful Wood Shavings

Last night I came home to this on the kitchen counter.

Do you know what this means?

It means that Heber is home and that he actually has a few minutes in his life to do something he enjoys. I can't tell you how happy this makes me.

He always has time to support me, to do things to help around the house or pack my lunch but he never really has enough time to pull out the things that he really enjoys. He's really a creative person with a knack for woodworking and figuring things out.

In the past couple of years, life has been very crazy for him, well both of us but mostly him. He fought his way through an electrical engineering degree, has started his career and all of the stresses and responsibilities that come with that, he has pushed through a graduate program (just a few semesters left!) while working full time and supported me through some pretty bad situations.

Finally this summer, work has died down a little and he's only taking one class. It looks like I'll be coming home to many more piles of wood shavings.

I couldn't be happier.

Glass

I guess I went crazy today and posted a few times, be sure to check them out.

It's been nearly a year since I started working with glass.
I love, love bead making. I was worried that when it started to get cold that I wouldn't be able to use the torch in the house without proper ventilation. Even through the cold fall, winter, and spring months in Logan, I have been making beads - mostly because I'm married to an engineer. Yes, he concocted a method to allow me to be able to use the torch in the house. It consists of a exhaust fan connected to a dryer hose that connects to a board that covers the winder and takes all of the gases outside. He really is brilliant. I would never think of that.

Here are some of my latest projects.



What projects have you been working on?

A Bug

I have the travel bug. I want to go everywhere. I just watched Mama Mia (truly a classic) a few weeks ago and all I want to be is on a Greek Island basking in the blue sky, blue sea and white picturesque buildings. Really, it’s all I can think about. I think it's just summer and I want to get out and see the world. Who wouldn’t want to go there?

Is there somewhere you're dying to go?

A Member, For Real

The big news around here is that I am now an official member of the Inishfre Dancers!! Yeah! I have been doing some performing with them this year but it's different when you really are one of the group. They asked me just a week or so ago.

I really love this. I love looking back and thinking about all the things I've learned and what I can do now. I love pounding my frustrations away and the killer calves (yes, I'm bragging, they really are awesome).

And just for fun, I'm throwing on a video of one of our performances. It's my favorite move. I'm the one filming. I've never posted a video before, but this just seems to merit it.

Unique Paths

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. School is out for the summer and I am just working part time at my job, although, I am taking a class and trying to get my portfolio organized. It has been so nice to have more time to work on all of my projects. You know I love my projects.

A few weeks ago, I went down to Women's Conference for one of the days. This year was particularly good for me. It's not often I get to spend a whole day with my mom and aunt just talking and laughing and being inspired. One of the talks particularly spoke to me. It was the closing talk of the day. She spoke about how we are each unique and the path we take in life or the way we return to Heavenly Father will not all be in a straight line.

This is something I have really been thinking about. My life is not a traditional Mormon wife life. I'm 26, Hebs and I have been married for almost 5 years, I don't have any children, after working for a few years, I returned to graduate school to pursue a degree that makes me happy, I work and I am a member of a performing Celtic dance team. It is so easy to look at the outside of my life and make judgments, to wonder why I live the way I do, and to question some of my decisions.

The speaker said that God has a unique plan for each of us. It may not look like the plan of the "norm" but that he will help to guide us to make the best decisions for us. If I've learned anything in my life, it's that there is a reason we have the experiences we do. It really opened my eyes to the need to respect the decisions of others. God has a plan for us and it's not all the same straight line. Even though there are these differences, we should still be drawing together to lift each other up.

So there's my thought for the day.

Pictures!

Heb and I were FINALLY able to have our pictures taken. I have wanted to do it for a long time, we haven't had pictures taken professional since we got married. It took a long time because I am honestly a little picky about photographers. Blame it on bad experiences before. We found Brittney Cascio of Cascio Photography and we are so happy with the result. I think she actually captured Heb and I. Check them out!






And my favorite at our favorite sandwich shop.

Churches and Faith

There's something you should know about my family...my dad loves visiting churches. When we vacation together, we visit mass. When we had a choice between visiting Chicago or Notre Dame for the day we visited the homeland of the fighting Irish.

Needless to say, I have visited many, many churches all over the world. In South America, some of the facades are stories high and covered in gold with full scale icons. Not to mention one of the large Cathedrals in Lima, Peru. You'd better just ask about that one in person. In Europe, we visited the Vatican with all of it's incredible art, saw relics and century old buildings.

The Catholic Church is still mysterious to me. Such tradition, rites and ritual. I must admit that I don't understand it all.

Last night, a friend and I visited one closer to home. The local Catholic Church holds monthly tours of their beautiful new building and off we went. It was a good opportunity to ask questions and to come to better understanding. The building, built in 2005, was beautiful. It was unlike the ornate churches I've seen elsewhere and I really liked the feel of the space-open and clean.

For the first time, I got past all of the decor and was able to hear about their beliefs. It was incredible to see the devotion and faith, and somehow renewed and solidified my faith even though I am a member of another church.

The church in Hyde Park holds tours the first Tuesday of every month in the evenings. I would completely recommend getting out there.