not so daunting

Well as most of you have noticed, this blog does not produce often occurring posts. This needs to change. I wanted this blog to be an online journal, but my letters to Elder Lewis would cover that better than this blog has. In this case I am my own worst enemy. I want this to blog to be amazing, witty, cleaver, cute, original, creative, informative, inclusive, up-to-date, and something for posterity to read, enjoy, and learn from. I am not fulfilling any of those desires. I have created a paradox because I never feel qualified to write, and when I decide I want to write, I make it such a daunting task that it never gets complete. I don't want to forget anything-but if I blogged more often I wouldn't forget anything. I want people to read this and think, "Wow, that was great!" or "She is so funny/witty/cleaver!" I feel as though I have a lot to live up to-mainly Kevin and Riley. I know I shouldn't compare myself, but I want this to be something people enjoy reading. As for now, no one is getting anything so I'm failing anyway.

Don't get the wrong idea, (Ty says this sounds so depressing, like blogging is all there is in life), I'm not depressed at all about blogging or about the amazing creativeness of others. I love reading other people's stuff-that's the problem I want to be awesome like all of you! Writing is a skill I long to develop! Ty says I need a hobby and I tell him I don't have time for hobbies. Writing, piano, cooking, are a few of the things I have interest in. School is the focus and I know there needs to be time for fun, but I'm the type to invest a lot of time (and sometimes money) into a hobby! I want to be good at it!

Anyway, this was just an update-for whatever its worth. I do have a "summer" blog draft that I'm working on and may get it posted eventually. For now, the direction of the Steele blog may be changing-at least that's the plan.

run-down of spring

I guess its time for a little catch-up! I was going to post after Tyler's birthday sushi-but we never got our camera developed and the others who took pix never got back to us. So I kept waiting to blog, but more and more kept building up and then I got overwhelmed! Okay, so that sounds a little ridiculous, especially now that I'm home alone for the better part of my day, so here goes.

MARCH

Tyler was jobless at this point, just picking up as many shifts as possible at Village Inn and working hard at his on-call job w/FixFlash.

We had an amazing stake conference focusing on temples and families-specifically husbands and wives. "If you are worthy to walk and talk with God in his halls, what are you worried about?' That was the general feeling I had during the conference. We had Richard G. Hinckley, of the Seventy, President Merrill J. Bateman, president of the Provo Temple and his wife, as well as our stake presidency speak to us. President Hinckley left a very good impression in my mind with this quote, "Pray as if everything depends on the Lord-then get up off your knees and work as if everything depends on you." These words were very comforting and empowering. I had very spiritual and comforting feelings and thoughts through-out the conference. Tyler was working very hard and very late, for him it gave him new strength and rejuvenated his mojo for life.

As I said we had Ty's birthday sushi on Saturday 21st. We had a way fun time, thanks to the Gibson clan, Captian Rylz, The Shurigs, Miss Becky and Miss Angie and of course, Ryan! We sure love sushi-thanks Yamato! Then for the perfect birthday celebration, we shared another great birthday on March 22nd. The Draper Temple dedication was aired for us in our stake center that evening.

To wrap up a great month, our stake also put on a women's conference. Of the eight workshops offered, we were able to pick three, then help with the humanitarian workshop. I chose "Marriage: The Pathway to Eternal Life" given by our bishop and his wife, Steven and Sharlene Campbell, "On the Road to the How, When, & Ifs of Motherhood" given by Kathy Phillips, and "The Flip Flop of Me, Myself, and I" given by Karla Peeples. The messages were so great, informative and comforting. Tyler took my Saturday expo shift at VI so I could attend, and knowing that I went in prayerful and thankful. I took notes and made connections, learned insights and heard testimonies, and in all had a great day.

APRIL

April proved to be the busiest month-again! Winding down of the semester, waiting for Ry's mission call, General Conferene, Easter, the boy's birthday(s), Shandon's ordination, Easter-egg hunts, moving, Amanda and Zac's wedding, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Well upon the arrival of a certain letter, August 12th became a critical date and Buenos Aries will be getting another missionary shortly after that. In addition Tyler picked up some sweet gigs with the UVU Music Department-lets just say it covered rent. While working for the Music Department, Ty caught the eye of the UVU Regan Theatre director, John Bullock. John liked Ty's style and had an opening at the theatre. Ty was offered the job and starting in May, is the new light and sound manager at the Regan Theatre! WooHoo!

MAY

This was an adventure month to say the least! Upon winning a trip last September, we made plans to head out to Disneyland courtesy of Casablanca Express. To add the the joy of vacation, as a Christmas present from Kevin and Karyon, we got tickets to Brian Regan!

We started out our 'fabulous vacation' with a trip to Tuacahn to see Brian Regan on Friday (5/8). Then hit Zion National Park on Saturday. We decided on Emerald Pools, easy to moderate (if I remember correctly) and had a great time-minus the part where we (Cass and Ty) got chased by a rabid deer. No on ever tells you what to do if a deer attacks you. This poor fellow was suffering from a nasty cold and his coat was pretty shabby. However we escaped and finished our hike.



On Mother's Day Sunday, we drove down to La Crescenta to hang with the Thibodeaus. On Monay, we set out for the happiest place on earth and got Disneyland underway. Our camera died during our trip to Zion so our Disneyland pix are straight off the cell phone.

from left to right above: Cass w/the awesome pirate band, us behind the pirate boat, and us on Space Mountain
below is our dinner at Blue Bayou-the restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride


After getting back from that adventure (and starting summer semester) Ty found out that he would be working 10-12 hour days for the next week or so. That did not excite Cass other than the paycheck-especially after her mishap with the Village Inn schedule book. Unfortunately she forgot to request off the Brian Regan half of vacation, but her ever loving friends and co-workers put her on hiatus for the summer. So looking forward to a week of nothing, Cass decided to escape to St. George. Kevin was passing though on his way home from business and Cass hitched a ride down with him and Michelle. You see the Days of Camelot was over Memorial weekend and we were planning to attend, so the ride back was all taken care of-Cass could just head back after that.

Which now brings us to the Days of Camelot Faire. Oh what fun we had! Thanks bunch to Kayron for making such awesome outfits.

jousting


After all this foolishness, we decided to check out one more thing before head back north-Snow Canyon.



So there you have it-our spring run-down, maybe next time we'll keep a better tab-but it doesn't look like it so far ;)

It's Just 5-1/2 Hours

Well our 5-1/2 hours was closer to 6-1/2-ish but it was great!

The idea of working the booth at the LA Times Travel and Adventure show sounded fun so we made plans to head down to St. George and hop aboard the St. George company van, hitching a ride with Kevin to LA. Upon realizing that our car registration was expired (last month) we figured while we were down, we might want to get it inspected and legal again. So we decided to have Tyler sluff his Thursday afternoon classes and head down to St. George early so we could get inspected and to the DMV before heading out on our adventure. We were under the false impression that good weather was with us, upon reaching Scipio we accepted our mistake and by Panguitch we were praying hard. At a speed of 45 mph in the fast lane, we found ourselves in the midst of a blizzard with taillights in front of us as the only conformation we were still on the road. All at once, we saw the motor home one car ahead of us dive into the median. Of course we're thinking "Oh my gosh! We just saw a wreck!" But then the car directly ahead of us followed suit-off into the median! What is going on? Then appearing as if poofed there, a jack-knifed FED-EX truck! So off we went into the median. I don't remember much, other than we made it thru unscathed and it didn't appear that anyone else was hurt in the six car pile-up. Well we got to St. George ok and our car was taken care of. The next morning Kayron informed us that I-15 was closed at Beaver last night from a different accident-needless to say we were very lucky-or very watched-over.

Our drive to Cali was uneventful (and we couldn't have been happier) except for Cass and Kevin's first experience at Tommy's Burgers. We made is safely to the Convention Center and set up, then checked in to the Marina Pacifica Hotel right on Venice Beach.

That night, we walked along the boardwalk, then wandered down the street to a great little sushi shack. Hama's Sushi Restaurant. Kevin tried Edamames and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Then back to the hotel to rest and arise early.

Our timing is definitely something that we need to work on. Early Saturday morning (Valentine's Day) we got up, got ready and headed downtown to make sure the booth was ready to go. We got there way early and missed out on breakfast, but ran down across the Convention Center to grab some hot chocolate and a doughnut. Then we worked the booth-and I got say it was so fun! It was easy and busy and nice! They day was a little long, but we had an awesome evening to look forward to! After closing up shop at the Convention Center we ran to Von's to get supplies for tomorrow then headed to the Thibodeau's to meet up for our awesome dinner at Claim Jumper! Thanks Dawna and Rick for taking care of us! It was a fabulous dinner and even better company!

Then we headed of the the Aztec Hotel/Elephant Bar to watch Rick and his band play! Wow! It was so fun! Watching the musicians on stage is just one of the coolest things. We unfortunately had to leave after the first set, Dawna was still recovering (you look great) and we all had the trade show the next morning.

Next morning we got to sleep in a bit so we decided to get breakfast on the boardwalk. It was nice and a great place to people-watch. Then we had to walk along the beach again as saw the cutest most adorable baby seagulls scampering around the surf. They were just delightful. But of course they made us late to the show! (Just a little).

Sunday's show was a success as well as Saturday's, it felt a little slower, but that could have been because the show's hours were shorter. Anyway we had a nice time, then promptly at 5:00 pm, we closed up shop and headed to the LA Temple to keep the Spirit.

Then we decided we'd better get some dinner so we wandered around the rich side of Santa Monica Pier Promenade, found a Buca Di Beppo and put our name on the list. A 40-minute wait, so naturally we wandered around the streets and were compelled to find the band that was playing. We found them, the two guitar players that is-they were amazing! After walked and observing we found ourselves in a Barns & Nobel. Here we discovered very important words of wisdom--'real men don't say splendid'! Thus proving that those cute, most adorable baby seagulls scampering around the surf, were NOT just delightful, because real men would say cute, adorable or delightful. Well we found our way back to Buca and waited another 15 minutes and less than satisfying service, but Buca still has great food. Well Monday brought and end to our trip. We got up extra early to head out and get to St. George with enough time to get us back to Orem by a decent hour. Lucky for us we got up early as we met awful weather in in the Cajon Pass. Let the pictures do the talking. Kevin was driving (yikes!), Tyler was serving as documentor and Cass had her face buried in a blanket in the back of the van. A expressed by the native Californian in the car, "I have never seen it like this in California!"

Well after a few tense hours (ok maybe not hours) we made it thru to clear weather. Dawna gave us a quick call checking that we had made it thru and informing us that I-15 was closed (2nd time in Cass and Tyler's trip). After detouring slightly in the black-hole of Barstow, we found ourselves calming driving thru the Gorge when Kevin observed the gas light come on. We thought for sure we'd make it and as we were pulling to the off-ramp of the first exit in St. George, the boys found themselves pushing the van off the freeway. So add another chapter to the LA Times Travel and Adventure novel, throw in some gas, food and Ryan and you'll reach the happy ending of a dry, uneventful drive back to Orem, and two very happy UVU students back to the grind!

In God's Hands

There are times in one's life when you have to throw every bit of logic out the window and survive simply off faith. I need times like that in my life to kick me back into gear and remind me what it's all about-family, love and the gospel.

Family is a blessing beyond measure. My father's new blessing as first counselor in Washington's stake presidency, has brought our family together. Not just physically, but spiritually-I know that to be the pivotal point. For whatever reason we do the things we do, be it driving down just because God prompted us to, cook Sunday dinner Saturday night, or wake-up at 4:30 am and drive thru Utah weather-we all did it because of family. We came together in support of our family, supporting the gospel.

Love cannot give definition enough to the feeling it represents. When you can't contain your emotion, when the spirit has impressed your heart and mind, and when the tears are coming with a smile on your face-love is the only word we can express. However it is not enough. Hope, charity and love-three of the crucial laws to live by in our church. January 25, 2009 was a day for all three.

The gospel is what I want my life to revolve around. Today was a great supporting detail of why I believe what I believe, why I am who I am, and why my goals are what they are. Not for one minute today did my faith in our sure foundation ever waiver. Not one time did I ask was it worth it. Not one time did I feel today to be a wasted, rushed or awkward trip. All one has to do is ask God in sincere faith why and he'll tell you why and then there is no reason to doubt.

The Primary Choir was a great inspiration to me. How easy it is to forget those everyday lessons learned in Primary. As I listened to them sing, "If The Savior Stood Beside Me" I was reminded of the earliest step of righteousness. The easiest and most instilled qualities that are expected not only of our youth, but should be daily habits for us adults.

"If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example? Would I live more righteously,
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?"

The meeting of the Washington Stake was a humbling, educating meeting. We heard from some of the church's greatest men and women. And as Elder Holland reminded us, "this meeting is not about the new or old stake presidency, this meeting is not about me or the other brethren on the stand, it is about Washington. We are all on a team, just like a track team, and today is President Ellsworth's turn to run the quarter mile. Down the road it will be another's turn to run."

"Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him...For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors."
-- Alma 34:19, 32