It's Great to be Eight!

We had a wonderful event happen on Saturday. Josh chose to be baptized by his dad and confirmed a member of the church by his Grandpa Thorne. It was a beautiful program that included Britney and Mandy singing "A Childs Prayer" while Shannah accompianied them.
Let me tell you a little bit about him. His favorite scripture story is the one about Jesus walking on the water and more often then not, he's the one that reminds us to have family prayer. He loves to play baseball so much that wants to be a baseball player when he grows up. He loves spaghetti and hates enchiladas. His favorite subject in 2nd grade is science and although he won't sing in the school choir, he has a great singing voice. He loves summer because it's warm and he can jump on the tramp. He is a stickler for rules and likes to make sure everybody in the house follows them. Scott and I wonder if he'll grow up to be a policeman. :o) He plays expert level on Guitar Hero and kicks everybody's butt at Boom Blocks (a Wii game that involves throwing baseballs).
We are so happy that he made this decision. Josh is such a sweetheart and we are so blessed to have him in our family.

"THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!"

WOW! What an eventful evening. It all started a little over 4 months ago . . .

Last December my mom and I decided it would be fun (?) to sit out in the freezing cold for hours and try to get Wicked tickets. We got to SL about 4:00am and the line was already wrapped around almost 3 sides of a city block. We were originally hoping to come home with 16 tickets so we could sell them to family and friends that were wanting to go, but we soon realized that it was highly unlikely that we would end up with tickets at all. Finally, after over 7 hours in line we made it to the box office and ended up with the last 6 tickets for the Apr. 23 show. Five of them were in the Directors Box in the back on the floor, and the other one was up at the very back of the highest balcony. Hey, at least we got some! My mom took 2 and the other 4 were for me, Scott, Shannah & Britney. (My girls paid for half of their ticket, good job girls!)

It felt like April 23 would never come, but it finally did and it was everything we could have hoped for. My mom, Dennis, the girls and I took Front Runner down and met Scott in SL. That was fun. When we got there, Scott and I were walking back from parking the car and President Monsen was just getting out of his car. He was so sweet and took the time to greet everyone he could (even shaking my hand) before they took him into a side entrance to the theater. Then we got inside and Elder and Sister Perry were in the foyer! We greeted them and they let us take a picture with them. Then we saw President Uchtdorf and his family in the balcony during intermission. Talk about cool!
Scott offered to take the seat in the balcony. The tickets in the directors box were split up so I couldn't sit next to the girls, but we were close enought to see each other. Also, we were so far back that we could only see the bottom half of the stage. So, since we knew what was going to happen during "Defying Gravity", my mom, Shannah and I ran down the side isle to watch so we could see Elphaba get raised up to the top of the stage. Shannah and I were both bawling during that song and also "For Good". Another cool thing was that we waited after the show and got an autograph and picture with the actress that played Elphaba.

We've been such big fans of this musical for years so it was just so unbelievably cool to actually be there watching the incredible production and singing all the songs with the characters. I can't imagine Broadway itself being any better!
(My mom has some more pictures on her camera so I'll add those as soon as I can get them from her.)

Shameless Self-Promoting

It donned on me that I could use this blog to promote a couple things I need help with. So bear with me for a minute . . .

First -

I am a Supervisor/Coordinator for a company called Compass USA. I am responsible for finding homes for about 25-30 students who are coming from France and Spain to Utah for an American Experience this summer. Speaking from experience, this is a great opportunity for students and their families to learn about another culture while teaching someone else about ours.

Last summer I placed 14 students in homes in our area. Each family expressed their gratitude for the program and said the experience was amazing. Most families continue to have close relationships with their students to this day.

The student ages vary from 14-19 yrs old. They generally stay anywhere from 3-6 weeks at various times throughout the summer. All the students speak English at some level, but most students are here to improve their English speaking abilities.

Host families are volunteer (unpaid) and are asked to provide:
· A bed - The student can share a room, although not a bed, with a same sex, same age sibling.

· A loving home · Three meals a day · Excitement about hosting.

I am hoping you would be willing to help me publicize the need for host families. If you or someone you know would be interested in doing something like this, PLEASE leave me a comment with your email address and I will forward some detailed information to you.

Second -

We are in need of sponsors for our Miss Syracuse Pageant. There are a couple of ways to do this:
1. Purchasing an add in our full-color program or
2. Donating a tax-deductable donation and your name will be included in our script the night of our pageant.

Again, if you know of a company that would like to do this, please leave me a comment with your email and I'll get back with you.

THANK YOU!!! Shelly

Out with the Girls!

Jennifer, Shelly, Meghan & Jessie

I haven't had this much fun in a long time! While our husbands attended the Priesthood Session of General Conference, a few of my best friends and I went to Wendover last night for a Phil Vassar Concert. It was a quick trip, but we crammed alot of good times in. We headed out Saturday afternoon which gave us time to eat dinner at the Rainbow Hotel and Casino, do some girl-talking at the table (long enough for the employees to come and start clearing the table off, I think hinting at us that it was time to leave) and catch the concert. Phil Vassar is an amazing performer and his band was incredible. I was fascinated with the drummer (Seth) because that's my favorite instrument on Guitar Hero Band.
After the concert, Jessie ran into someone she knew so we waited for a bit to talk to them and to our surprise the band came out to clear the stage. They hopped off the stage for us so we could take some pictures with them. They were great! After we were done schmoozing with the band :o) we headed back to reality and our loving families. THANKS JESSIE (AND JIM)!!!

Below you see Jen, J-Dog (Jeff) the lead Guitarist and backup singer, Jessie, Seth the drummer, me, Jason the fiddler, etc (he played 5 different instruments and sang backup!) and Meghan.

Thanks for the great time girls! I can't wait until we go skydiving next year!!!