Mormal and more

So here in our area they have a big dance at our church called Mormal...short for Mormon Formal.

 

Its been all the talk in Taylor's group of friends but since he doesn't really like dances he wasn't planning on going. Then they started all encouraging each other to ask someone and their youth leaders encouraged them to ask people (there ends up being girls that want to go and they don't get asked) so Taylor decided to ask a friend of his, Emily.

 

Actually a couple of days before he was going to ask her he asked her if she was going to Mormal and she said "Heck no!" He didn't think she really wanted to go.

 

 

But he got up his courage and asked her anyway. He put post it notes on her car and stood there holding balloons and a sign when she got out of seminary. She was happy and said yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That weekend we went out to meet Angela and Robert in Los Angeles to meet up since we didn't get to for Christmas.  We met them at The Grove shopping mall which was right next to a Farmer's market.

 

We were fascinated with the neighborhoods as we drove the 3 or 4 miles to the mall. You would have run down scary areas and two streets over million dollar homes. There were streets filled with shopping carts and homeless people walking amid shoppers and people coming home from church. Since it was the Jewish Sabbath there were a lot of  people walking home from synagogue. We kept seeing guys in big fur hats and the street and were curious what they were. We did a google search, I guess they are called a streimel and they are Hasidic traditional dress wear. Interesting.

 

 

Anyway when we got to the mall we loved it. It had fountains and stores and was a great place to meet up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taylor admiring how the the locals live....or drive ;)

 

 

 

 

 

After walking around a bit we headed over to the farmer's market where they had just about every kind of food imaginable.

 

 

 

 

The kids got barbeque, and Jeff and I ate Brazilian barbeque (yum)

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the Zooks had jambalaya.

 

Ian was hanging out with us while they got their food. He wasn't too sure what was going on and didn't want anything we offered him. You could tell that he was very relieved when mom and dad came back.

 

 

Robert is doing well. We caught him right before going in for another round of chemo. So far his tumor isn't growing back but the chemo leaves him sick and weak 1/2 the month. He said he's lost 30 or so pounds, he said it's quite a diet if you're looking to lose weight.

 

 

 

 

After a little more shopping we ended with dessert at Sprinkles cupcakes. I had never had them. We all sampled a few. Very good! Jacob was watching the fish here. Until security told him he had to be on the other side of the wall, ha ha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This last week Jeff ended up flat in bed for a few days with the stomach flu. He isn't normally down so when he's down I know he's really sick.

So one of the mornings I picked up the kids from seminary

Jacob ended up coming in the car with this.

 

It was an early Valentine from a girl he's friends with.

 

I'm sure it made his day :)

 

This last weekend we went shopping for her to get her some Valentine's day stuff.

 

 

 

 

My calling is keeping me busy lately. We are getting ready for a Women's conference and there are a million details to get ready for it. We have been having weekly 2 1/2 to 3 hour presidency meetings, I've been working on flyers, posters, evites and more of course they have to be in both Spanish and English for our one group of Spanish sisters.

 

At one point I nervously got out my Adobe Photoshop to try and learn how to make a more formal invitation not knowing how to use the program at all.

 

I wondered how I was going to do it but then I remembered when you are on the Lord's errand you are never doing it alone. I tried not to stress as I'm trying through trial and error to learn even the basics. Sure enough when I would get stuck I would walk away and a little later an idea would pop in my head and I would run back to it.

 

So hours later and after 3 attempts I finally came up with an invitation that I was happy with. It's not a work of art but I was happy that at least I know how to do it and it's good enough!

 

 

 

 

This week we got something as close to snow as we are probably going to get! It's been cold lately...but not as cold as most of the country so I can't complain.

 

I came out of a meeting and the rain coming down looked like it was floating a bit. When it got to the ground it was rain. The way it gathered on my car it looked like snow, wet snow. It wasn't much and it was brief but it was still cool to see ;) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday night we took the kids to a Barbeque place called Famous Daves.

 

We went there with the Oleson's and the boys never got to experience it. It was still raining so it ended up taking us an hour to get to the restaurant with traffic. Once we got there and the placed us at the table next to the roaring fire, and we got our awesome food nobody cared about the long drive.

 

 

 

 

All the kids agree...

 

 

 

They have the best Barbeque!

 

 

 

Yum!

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday night was Mormal!

 

We got Taylor a new shirt and tie and picked up the coursage.

 

I was laughing because though he had showered Taylor was hanging out in sweats most of the day and about 1/2 hour before we were going to go he threw on his clothes. I was thinking that that girls were not getting ready in a 1/2 hour!

 

 

 

 

 

Taylor and his date Emily Orr. What a good looking couple!

 

 

 

They doubled with Trevor Thompson and Annie McKell.

 

 

 

 

What a good looking group!

 

 

 

 

Girls...

 

 

 

Boys....

 

 

 

and they're off!

 

 

 

Before they went to the dance they went to the Giford's house for a formal dinner. Taylor said it was really fancy. They ate, went to the dance and then hit Jack in the Box on their way home, getting home by midnight.

 

 

 

They all had fun but I know at least at our house it was hard for them to get up in the morning for early church. ;)