'Twas an eve of gilt-edge swords and fair maidens

One night, we decided to harness our inner geeks and went to a Medieval dinner. I'd seen different ones advertised before, but I think I only felt a mild curiosity about them. Growing up, I think we kids may have brought up the idea to go in Vegas or Anaheim, but it was shot down by a disinterested overruling party (aka Mom and Dad).

I didn't really know what to expect. I guess I thought I'd see a bunch of Renaissance festival rejects using the dinner as an excuse to wear a codpiece. And here I'm talking about the dinees, not the members of the show.

I'm happy to report that the people were pretty normal. Other than the performers, no one carried fake weaponry, wore tights, or spoke in fake British accents. I was relieved. The show itself was moderately campy but majorly entertaining and extremely fun.

Surprisingly, the dinner was very good. In keeping with the times, we ate without utensils. I had roasted game hen and Mike had roasted vegetables, both of which were savory and cooked to perfection. Honestly, I'd go back just for the meal.

Our knight perished in the course of the evening, which was very sad, but it didn't detract from what was a marvelous date night--truly one of the highlights of our vacation!

I never was able to load up the pictures from our day at Sea World because of poor internet connection at the hotel where we stayed. Quick note: you know the great thing about Sea World? Once a year for active duty military and their family, they get in free. Free! That's about $175 that we saved! (Of course, we pay in other ways. $7 for a small bottle of water?!? And yet I plunk down the change for you, you pirate, because it's 95 degrees outside.)

Anyway, here are the pictures:

This is outside of a ride called "The Kraken." There's a part where you can enter the Kraken's lair, where its guarding its eggs...

In what became a fun and goofy recurring theme, Mike would indicate where we were on the map. Here we are at the crocodiles. See them? Waldo might be there somewhere, too.

Mike had never pet a sting ray, so we spent some time at the "petting zoo" part of the park.

Mike's favorite picture from the dolphin show was this one, where the guy leaps off the dolphins' noses, so I had to include it!

You've had a birthday, shout "Oy vey"

I'm finally getting around to posting our vacation to Orlando. For those of you who have been breathlessly waiting, here you go!

I haven't felt completely excited about a birthday in, oh, a decade or so. Mike always makes every holiday special, but the prospect of turning a year older is a little depressing. Once I started to get closer to 30 than 20, birthdays lost most of their luster. That's doubley true now that I'm closer to 40 than I am to 30. I woke up May 25th and I thought of a conversation I had with my cousin, Marika's, daughter (7 years old at the time) that went something like this:

Amber: Look at the Lego thing I’m making!
Me: Wow! That’s really cool! Tell me about it.
Amber: Well, it’s this vehicle with wheels.

Me: It looks great.
Amber: You remember 1983?
Me (smiling with nostalgia, thinking of Madonna, “Smurfs,” jelly shoes, and “The Christmas Story”): Yeah…those were good days.

Amber: Well, I’m making a horse that can pull this covered wagon I’m building just like they had back then.

Me (no longer smiling): Um, I think you mean 1883.

My pity party lasted only a few moments, though, because May 25th was the day that we were planning on going to see the new Harry Potter land at Universal Studios.

It was off to Hogsmeade. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Harry Potter books, I'm not going to orient you, because...shame on you. You really need to read the books.

We had butter beer (don't worry, non alcoholic), cauldron cakes (don't worry, not on fire), and pumpkin juice. We toured Hogwarts, stood on platform 9 3/4, and went in Olivander's Wand Shop. It was so much fun.

You probably can't see my earrings in the above post, but trust me, they're awesome. Mike got them for me, along with a necklace and bracelet. He's such a sweetheart and made the day very memorable--to the point that I will now look forward to birthdays because his enthusiasm is so contagious. Thanks, Hon!

I'll admit it. This Northwest winter has really gotten to me. Last year, I was riding high on a combination of sunshine saved from Hawaii and the excitement of being engaged. This year, I only had one week of summer to store up sun and warmth, and I used it all by mid-October. I can handle cold and sunshine (somewhat). I can handle warmth and overcast. Combining the two day after day for for the last nine months has slowly chipped away at my perfect sense of well-being. I've needed a vacation for awhile.

Well, I got it! Mike and I are in Florida for the next week. It's warm, it's sunny, and it's just what the doctor ordered.

On Saturday, we went to Sea World. We took a lot of pictures and I tried to load some of them up, but after two hours, these are the only two photos that worked. I finally gave up because frustration is NOT what a vacation is all about. Here are the two pictures from the dolphin show we saw.

The show involved some aerial acrobatics.

The grand finale!

Heaven-Sent Hugs

This evening, the youth from our ward drove to Seattle to do baptisms for the dead. It wasn't initially our assigned month, but earlier this year as I was getting the lesson schedule planned, I noticed a lot of temple-related lessons occurring together. I thought of making May "Temple Month" and asked if our youth could do baptisms in May rather than November. Our High Priests Group Leader arranged so that we could combine with the other ward and go twice: once in May and once in November. Turns out, it was the perfect day to go.

Last summer, one of the Mia Maids in our Young Women passed away from complications from a heart defect. She had gone in for surgery, coded in the surgery room, and died a few days later. Today would have been her 16th birthday. Two Sundays ago at Fast and Testimony meeting, her mother stood up and bore her testimony. She said that whenever she attends the temple, she prays that the sister for whom she is acting as proxy might seek Hailey out in the spirit world and give her a hug from her mother.

One sweet sister in the ward had a brilliant and truly Christlike idea. She bought a "birthday" card and gave it to the Young Men and Women at the temple. She asked the youth, as they performed their temple work, to keep in mind Hailey's mom's desire for hugs for her daughter. They were to pray for peace and comfort to be poured out upon the family and to pray that the person for whom they were doing the work to search out Hailey and give her a hug from her mother.

After everyone was finished, each person wrote in the card something along the lines of "Did baptisms and confirmations for the dead--23 birthday hugs for Hailey." Of course, I didn't participate in any of the work since I was just there to supervise, but while I was in the temple I prayed for Grandpa Rowley, Grandma Stacey, and Mike's dad to give Hailey a hug. I'm sure that today people were lining up in heaven to embrace this choice young woman. The Relief Society sisters did initiatories earlier and signed their own card, so there were hundreds of hugs for Hailey. The ward is going to present the cards to Hailey's mom tomorrow.

It was such a testimony builder for me. What an example of a mother's eternal love and caring for her daughter! That the youth in our ward would be able to perform this simple act of service for a grieving family testifies of our Heavenly Father's love for each of us.

I scream, you scream...

Two weekends ago, Mike and I went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon, WA. Some friends told us we needed to visit Snow Goose Produce. We Googled it and ended up at this little roadside fruit stand.

The reason people drive from miles to go to Snow Goose Produce is not the fresh vegetables or the organically produced fruits it offers. It also has ice cream...lots and lots of creamy goodness and a loooooong line. It was about 4 dollars for a single scoop and 6 for a double scoop. Here's a picture of a double scoop:

Dad's response when we sent him the picture: Where did you find such a small hand? Haha.

I'd never seen such a big ice cream cone. Mike's eyes were as big as his stomach as he walked to the counter and asked for a double. The tweenager behind the counter looked my husband's slender frame up and down and said, "Have you seen our scoops?"

Oh, he'd seen the scoops, alright, and two scoops it was. The entire ice cream cone was literally bigger than his head.

As we walked along the road back to the car, motorists were doing double takes. One guy in a pick-up looked like he wanted to give Mike an Air Five but stopped himself at the last minute. We sat in the car and I made it through about half of mine before eventually digging a hole in the dirt and burying it in the ground.

Mike ate the whole thing.

The. Whole. Thing.

And I'm pretty sure he could've eaten more.

Research? I am besmirched!

I feel terrible that I haven't updated the blog in a few weeks. Since this is essentially my journal--minus my innermost thoughts and feelings--I really should be doing a better job. Especially since we've had so many fun weekends lately.

The reason I've been off the grid for awhile is that I've been working like mad trying to get my research put together and submitted for IRB approval. IRB=Institutional Review Board and they're the hospital folk who make sure that research is ethical. At least, that's how it began. As you can imagine, once a committee gets a little bit of power, it eventually gets puffed up with its own importance and puts more and more regulations on what should be a simple process.

My research, which is required to graduate from fellowship, is a very simple mail-out survey. In order to get permission for that, I have to submit to the IRB no fewer than 15 documents. One of them is 11 pages long. With apologies to the members of my family who actually like this stuff, I have to say that I've hated this experience so much that I'd rather take out my own tonsils with a melon baller than ever have to do research again.

Yesterday, I finished up the IRB paperwork and now I'm just waiting for my mentor to OK it and I'll submit it for approval next week. Here's crossing my fingers...