The Osmonds

Last night I went to the Pioneer Day Celebration concert with the Tabernacle Choir and special guests The Osmond Family. It was fabulous. We didn't know we were going to get to go to this concert. On Thursday our tickets came in the mail and surprised us all. The concert was great. I love to hear the Tabernacle Choir sing anytime but it is always a special when they sing for a holiday. Then to have the Osmond family as part of the concert was extra special. It was their final stop on the 50th Anniversary tour. They all got a little emotional about half way through as they were showing clips of concerts they had done over the years and of their parents. It was touching and I think everyone in the audience shed a tear or two. They are such a special family and a great example for our church and for the state of Utah. I was very glad I was able to attend and be a part of that celebration.

Pioneer Day Celebration

Pioneer Day (July 24th) is a big holiday in Utah. It's the day we celebrate the pioneers coming across the plains and into Utah. It's also called the Days of 47. We have a big parade downtown, a rodeo and we even have a Days of 47 Royalty. A couple years ago my dad and I had the opportunity to volunteer at the parade. I walked along side one of the floats throughout the entire parade. It was so much fun. I love parades and it was fun to be a part of this big event. I walked 10 miles that morning and could hardly walk the next day but it was worth it. I walked along side of the Mama's Church Choir float which is a crowd favorite. They are a big gospel choir from a local church (i forget the name). They were a fun group to be with. This year I only caught the end of the parade. I was sick the day before with a kidney stone and infection. I slept in and completely forgot about the parade. My day was not quite the same after missing the parade.

Pioneer Day is like a second 4th of July for my family. Jared and his family come over for the evening and we have a fireworks show. We buy some fireworks and sparklers and create our own little show. The sparklers have had a theme the past two years. Last year they were Harry Potter wands. We had just finished reading the final Harry Potter book in our family. This year they were light sabers from Star Wars. Ethan has watched the first two Star Wars movies, actually it would be 4 and 5, he lives and loves Star Wars. So we all had to do a light saber fight with our sparklers. Then we had the fireworks show. This year all of our fireworks had a music name which started out as a just a theme and then turned into a joke. The karaoke classical, karaoke blues and karaoke rock and roll all sounded the same to us. It was still fun. My three brothers really know how to make things fun. They tried to launch a paper cup three or four times with the fireworks. It never did work but hey they tried. The finale was fabulous. Party Hardy and Forever Young were the big fireworks. They loaded the two big fireworks with sparklers around the edges and then lit the sparklers. One of the sparklers was attached to the fuse of the big firework and started them going. It was perfect. Overall it was a great day!

Tag! You're It.

I've been tagged! Shauna tagged me in her blog. I am supposed to Name 5 goals, the places I have lived and then tag 4 other people. This was a tough one well at least part of it was. The places I have lived was easy.



Places I Have Lived

The Avenues of Salt Lake City, Utah in an apartment building my grandfather built. (Until I was 6 weeks old)

Murray Utah

Taylorsville Utah (18 years-two different homes)

Sandy Utah

Midvale Utah (my first apartment)

Draper Utah (my second and third apartment)

Sandy Utah (back home with parents to save money for a home of my own)



(One day I may move out of Utah but for now I love living here.)



5 Goals



1. Number 1 Goal is to get married and have a family.

2. Travel around the world.

3. Record a CD with all my favorite songs that I enjoy singing.

4. Learn to play the guitar.

5. Own a house


Now tag to Natalie, Mandy, Monica and Denise. If you don't have a blog you can email.

Pixar

Pixar is amazing. Today we went to see Wall-E. 8 adults and 1 four-year old and we all sat staring at the movie screen in awe. What an incredible movie. It had a great message and the animation was amazing. Everyone who knows me knows I love Disney and I also love Pixar. My brother has a friend (he is actually my age and we went to elementary school together) who is an animator for Pixar and that just makes us enjoy their films even more. I have always been impressed with all of the Pixar films but this one is by far my favorite. It just impressed me so much. My nephew Ethan (the 1 four-year in the group) can talk just like Wall-E. Right before the movie started he said "Wall-E" just like the robot does and everyone turned around trying to see who had just said it. He sounded just like him and could very easily have played the voice of the darling robot.

Proud to be an American

I am so grateful to live in America. The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love to hear Patriotic songs. They usually make me tear up. In fact, I can't sing the National Anthem without getting emotional. I just feel so blessed to live in America. Independance Day is such an important holiday to me.

Girl's Night Out

Last night I went to see "The Drowsy Chaperone" at Capitol Theatre. One of my best friend's went with me. We haven't seen each other in about 5 years. We send emails and catch up through each other's blog but we hadn't actually seen each other in person for 5 or 6 years. We have grown up together and have known each other since we were 5 years old. We have always had a common interest in musicals and so when I had an extra ticket available I invited her to come along. We made it a night out. It was so much fun catching up. It was also fun to meet her three cute sons when I picked her up at her house. It was fun to be with an old friend. One who knows so much about me and enjoys most of the same things I do. We laughed about some of the things we had done as teenagers and we talked about getting older and all the crazy things that happen in life. It was a perfect Girl's Night Out.

We were so excited when we arrived at Capitol Theatre and read that Man in Chair would be played by JONATHAN CROMBIE. If you are a fan of Anne of Green Gables (the movie versions) he plays Gilbert Blythe. I love Gilbert! Jonathan Crombie is Canadian and has that great Canadian accent. I love Canada! I have only been there once, well actually twice but it was on the same trip. But I loved every minute that I was there and the Canada pavilion at Epcot is my favorite. But that's another blog! We went to Vancouver and then Victoria. One day I want to go to Prince Edward Island and see the Anne of Green Gables sights they have there. Anyway, back to the musical and Jonathan Crombie.

Here he is as Man in Chair.

He was hilarious. I only wish we had been sitting closer or that I had remembered to bring my binoculars. His role as Man in Chair is the main role. The story line is this; Man in Chair plays a record of his favorite musical. As we listen the musical comes to life in his living room. The musical we see come to life is "The Drowsy Chaperone" which tells the story of a Broadway starlet trying to find and keep her true love. Man in Chair jumps in and tells about the characters and the actors who played the roles. He tells us which are his favorite scenes and his not so favorite scenes. He joins in the dancing and acting. It is a musical inside of a musical. Very entertaining!

As the show began a woman with a very distinct voice came on the stage and I immediately recognized her voice. I couldn't place where I knew her from though. It took a few scenes and finally I figured it out. "Everybody Loves Raymond". She was the mother of Amy (Robert's wife) on that TV show. She was also Georgette on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Yes, it was Georgia Engel. If you have never seen this musical I highly recommend it.

It was a great night. I needed this fun night after having a couple of really lonely and frustrating weeks. The best part of the night besides seeing Jonathan Crombie was when we arrived at my car at the end of the night. First, we got off the elevator on the wrong level and couldn't see my car so we got back on the "elevator of nausea" and went back up to the lobby level where we had started. The door open and no one got on because we were going up not down. We went up one level and then back down to the lobby and this time added a few people. We then went back down to Parking Level 1 (not our level). A few people got off and we hope and pray that the elevator goes down to Level 2. Yes, finally I see my car. We walk to my car and there is a baby bird sitting on the roof. It was cute but I wanted it to get off my car so it wouldn't get hurt when I drove away. It wouldn't move. I opened my door and started to get in and then it decided to move which of course scared me out of my mind. "Don't land on my head." I screamed as I hurried and jumped into my car and close the door. My friend gets in on the other side and is laughing at me. "That is going on the blog." So, there is it. She opened my moon roof shade to see if the bird was still on the roof. She couldn't see it. We both hope it flew away when I screamed.

More on The Job

The job is getting a little better. It's not a fun job by any means. However, it's not really a hard job and when I walk out the door I am able to leave work behind which I was not always able to do with my last job. The atmosphere is entirely different than my last job. It has been quite an adjustment. They are a lot more serious and don't talk much. It's quite lonely most days. I know we should be working most of the time but I don't even get a hello or goodbye. Everyone just comes in, goes to their cubicle and starts working. At my last job I knew everyone and I always had someone to talk to. My co-workers were so friendly and we actually talked about life not just work. I miss that a lot.

To top things off, today was Friday the 13th and computers were acting weird and some even crashed. I am not really a superstitious person but the last three Friday the 13th's have been a bit crazy. I have had odd computer problems on all three. I know they occur throughout the rest of the year too but they just seem extra weird on Friday the 13th. Today, we had a computer change it's IP address in the middle of the day on it's own. If you are not a technical person that basically means it changed it's identity on it's own. That is a bit tricky to do from what I know about IP addresses. Especially on the highly sophisticated computers we have in my department. After all we are EDI (electronic data interchange) and connected to all sorts of networks and such. (That's me trying to sound computer savvy. I really don't have a clue if that is even correct!) We lost connectivity to all programs and it was like the computer was brand new. Nothing was saved, no documents or programs worked. Luckily, we were able to switch it back and everything was saved up to the point where it had switched. It was just spooky. I have never seen that happen on a normal day!