There Is Peace in Righteous Doing

I've been a little crabby lately. Yep, PMDD still has a vise grip on me. I've had a line of a song we sang last week in church on my mind ALL WEEK. I'm not sure if it's meant to be spiritual guidance and inspiration, or just good self-talk, but I figured if I use it as my post title, I can let it go. (It reminded me of Lamb Chop's "This is the song that never ends....") I'm trying to ditch the crabbiness before heading off to a Stake Conference meeting - hoping that I can feel a spirit of peace rather than the spirit of discontent that seems to always accompany a bout of hormonal fluctuations. The timing is always so bad.

I wanted to also quickly post these pictures from the Academic Letter Ceremony that we attended this week. LHS holds them in the morning before school, and the traffic is always terrible. Bill left after me, but arrived to the school a good 5-10 minutes before me. I know. How did that happen? Let me just say that the school traffic in the neighborhood is a little crazy, and Bill chose more wisely than I on that particular morning.

 This was Shi's 3rd Academic Letter. Nice job, girl!

Shi has some really great friends. I love how once I start snapping pictures, they just keep jumping in, handing me their cell phones to snap some for them too. Such cute girls.

The other great news for Shilo is that she was able to get into Student Government. I am so glad that she has the opportunity to be involved in planning and implementing activities for the school this year. She has already been really busy and is anxious about doing the morning announcements this week for upcoming Homecoming activities. The announcements these days are pretty high tech - no hiding behind a microphone in the principal's office broadcasting via an intercom system. They are filmed and televised, and can be accessed from the school website. Shi's feeling the pressure and is worried about being "awkward." I'm sure she'll do a fantastic job.

 A fun bonus: all these awesome girls are in Student Government, too.

Counting my blessings... I feel better already.

50th Anniversary - Part 3: The Party

Again, my goal is to not get too wordy. 

Let me just say that these pics were all taken on my trusty old point-and-shoot. Austin took tons of pictures throughout the evening, but hasn't had a chance to share, so you're stuck with what I have. 
Some of which are quite good; others, not so much.

 Rob, Evelyn and Sookie. We found out at the party that Rob and Sookie are engaged.

Congratulations!

 The food spread.

Taylor and Lynnea

Cutest. Picture. Ever.

Christian, Hannah, Grandma, Mauri, and Meredith

{Twinners} Lex and Grandma.

Once dinner was over, we were racing good lighting to get a group photo. My awesome BIL (not to be confused with BILL) and my cute SIL made the trip from West Jordan after a long day of football (they have 3 boys that play), to snap some pics for us.

Austin got his camera set and ready to go...

...Brian made sure we could all be seen... and were smiling...

...then snapped away.

I couldn't help but nab a few pics of my own of these two funny guys.

Thank you, Brian and Robyn!

Let the fun and games begin.

Note: I missed a portion of the fun and games (clean-up duty), but I'm pretty sure there are some awesome pics of it somewhere. I will share when I get some! We had a rousing game of croquet, and several aggravating fun AGGRO games going on simultaneously.

After winners and losers were made, it was time for our outdoor movie - a trip down memory lane...

...but not before a little shaking and jiving.

After the movie we headed inside for a couple more pictures (EVERYBODY loves taking pics, you know).

Here is the whole fam: Marty, Rob, Jill, me, Jana, Matt. It was so awesome to have everyone there!

And our better halves: Sookie, Stan, Jon, Bill, Kim, and Lia.

Austin and Britt

A kissing picture is a requirement on a 50th Anniversary...

Once the party was officially over, some of the girls took turns trying on Grandma's wedding dress.

Britta

Lexee

(I have to mention that I'm the one that puffed the veil so high... looking back at the pics, it looks better down. I was trying to duplicate how my mom wore it... and how I dreamed of wearing my own wedding veil as a little girl. My mom had the original crown part of her veil, but not the tulle part, so late the night before - extremely late -  we had tried to whip one out. My only regret is not taking a little more time on it... but we were soooooo tired.)

Rachael

Meredith

Mauri

Hannah

It was such a fun night, and a great memory for our family!

The only thing I'm missing in the coverage of this memorable event is the car.
We sent Mom and Dad off to a movie while we set up for the party, and while they were in a dark theater enjoying the show, some of the grandkids decorated their car, then hung around incognito to capture it on film and camera. I will share it when I get it.

Check out some of Austin's pictures here.

50th Anniversary - Part 2: The Set Up

I talk write too much.

I will keep the commentary down in this post as much as possible.

We decided to go with a purple-with-yellow-accents party theme because of this picture:

Fashions and styles come and go, and while wedding colors went through the dusty rose then peach then seafoam green then maroon then evergreen then... whatever stages, my mom had lamented her choice of purple. But it all comes back around, you know?

Before I begin, let me just say, "Yes, you've seen this on Pinterest," because we obtained all many of our decor projects from that magnificent idea-sharing/storing site. It's the best for an uncreative mind like mine!

Jill is the tissue-paper-poof-ball queen. She whipped these babies out in no time. I think I made one.

Utensil holders / name cards (names typed with an authentic roll-the-paper-in-then-count-your-letters-then-backspace-by-half-and-pray-you-don't-make-a-mistake old-fashioned typewriter).

Table flowers.

50 Fun Facts (with facts on both sides... 50 is a big number!)

Straws.

Cake Toppers.

Love Notes table (Jill's cool typewriter was a hit - Mauri has asked for one for Christmas).

Paper banner. Wedding Day photos.

Jill and I had a vision of one big long family table. Outside. It was a little tricky to pull off.

A few days prior we stood in the backyard around 6pm to see what the conditions were like. We thought the long flat area furthest from the house would be the ideal spot for the overall party aesthetics.

It was too hot. Too sunny. We would need to cram the tables in a shady area next to the central air unit for dinner to be comfortable.

As the party drew closer, however, the sky became overcast. The air was breezy. It did, however, look like rain. Jill insisted that the weather was going to cooperate, and we proceeded to set the table in our desired location.

About 30 minutes before six a little rain fell. Then a little more.
Thanks to some brilliant minds (not mine, btw), a speedy solution was found.

Around 6:15 the rain stopped, we finished the set-up, and the meal was ready.

It was a perfect evening.
Cool, but not cold. Light, but not sunny. Breezy, but not windy.

Up next: The Party