February 2012

February was a fun and speedy month.   Even with the extra day, this month has flown by.   I guess it was because we were so busy doing fun things.     The first highlight of the month was the Regency Romance Ball.   The ball was held two nights this year and David and I got to go both nights to help teach the dances.   Here we are in our ensembles for Friday night.     Saturday night was even more fun, because we had a lot of friends join us.    Abe Fox won the Mr Darcy award this year.   I think we should try to keep it in the group every year!  I love being able to recreate the most romantic parts of the Regency Era!


February also brought the performances of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.  Raven played Scout and London played Jem.   They had a lot of fun with this.  They really enjoyed going to every rehearsal.  They worked hard and did a great job with their parts.   I was so proud!


They had 7 shows and did a great job every time.  They even figured out how they were going to improv on the night that Dill threw up onstage from the balcony during the courtroom scene.  The projectile vomit landed in Atticus's chair.  Thank goodness he wasn't sitting in it at the time.   The show went on like nothing happened, except that Dill and Reverend Sykes left the balcony for a while.  Dill came back with a different shirt on in time to do the scene where he and Scout go out and Scout asks "What's the matter with you?  Ain't ya feeling all right?  Why'd you run out?"  - It couldn't have been a better line to follow that!      This was a great experience for them and all who came to see the show.

We bought a new vehicle!   I have been saying for years that I wanted a school bus.   Ms Frizzle is one of my heroes and I wanted my own Magic School Bus to take on field trips.   Well, Nathan noticed one in the back yard of a house near us and decided to go knock on the door and ask if they wanted to sell it.   The owner had been asked that question many times, but we happened to ask at the right time.  He and his wife were planning to get rid of some stuff and take off and travel.  Plus he got to meet our family and I think he liked us and thought that we would love and appreciate the bus.   Which we will!   We are excited to have many adventures and field trips in our bus with our friends.   Seat Belts Everyone!! 

(And it does have seat belts!)

January 2012

So,  This year I'm going to try to do a monthly blog, instead of waiting until the end of the year.  So for I'm two months behind,  but I figure if I can do this every other month it is still a great improvement over last year.   So,  let's start with January.

January was party month for Fusion-io.  They hold their holiday parties in January, instead of December.  I got to go to all of them.   The first one was in Denver.  There are about 15 employees in that office.  It reminded me of the early days of Fusion.   The next Friday the party was here in Salt Lake.   This one was for around 600 + people, including spouses.   Much bigger than the first year, when I hosted the Christmas party at my house and did all the cooking for 20 people.    The next we we went to the one in San Jose.  That office has over a hundred people there now.   It was really fun to see everyone and see how it is growing.  

We got to spend our week up at Snowbird this month too.  It has been over 2 years since we were there last.   It is harder to go to Snowbird now that the kids are older then when they were little.   Being at Snowbird is not far enough away to really get away,  so we find ourselves coming down often for our usual life commitments.  Our plans to have friends come up and spend time with us kept falling through as well.   It was still fun, and I enjoyed every minute of our time there.

We got back in the swing of things with the new year.   I am having a great time with both of my Shakespeare classes.  The conquest class is doing actors training, and the Elite class is studying Hamlet.

I started teaching Zumba at our church for the women in our stake and surrounding areas.  It is going really well.   We consistently have about 26 people show up for class.  That is about the max that can fit in that room.   We could move it to the Stake center,  but this location is really central for everyone that is coming. If it grows much more we'll have to move.  It is a lot of fun, and I'm getting a lot of positive feedback from the women who come.

London's Lego League team had their competitions again this month.   At our regional competition they did well, and won the Robot Design category and earned a place at the state competition.   They did even better at the state competition.  Their first robot run was excellent and held steady as the 2nd best run of the day.  The team ended up winning 2nd place overall and a chance to go to Legoland to a tournament.   We don't even have to fundraise for this, since they earned enough last year to pay for this as well!  Good Job PiPod!   The amazing thing is that all of their work was stolen around Thanksgiving and they had to start from scratch.  I'm glad the boys and the coaches decided to start over.  I think they learned a great lesson about overcoming in the face of adversity!