Who Says We're Not Domestic!

In order to refine ourselves, enhance our skills and do something productive with our time, Alyssa and I decided we wanted to make a quilt together. Alyssa's sister, Bethany, had some fabric she bought a few years ago, which she left at their mom's house in Arizona. So when Alyssa went home, she retrieved the fabric and we decided to surpise Bethany and make the quilt for her birthday, which was this last Saturday. It was perfect since she is now married with 2 small kids and not only had forgotten about the fabric, but would never have time to make a quilt.

So one evening, Alyssa and I planned out a pattern - it took us forever to come up with one, but we did it... when you look at the quilt it seems like it would be a no brainer... but Alyssa and I have recently discovered that when we are together, we seem to have less smarts. Two brains are not always better than one. Anyway, we drew up this pattern and then went to work on a Saturday ironing the fabric, tracing out 8x8 inch squares, and cutting out all 187 squares (while watching Raiders of the Lost Ark).

The next Saturday we headed to Jenna's house (another of Alyssa's sisters), and sewed the squares together by rows. 17 squares per row, 11 rows. It took us quite a while. I'm pretty sure Jenna was unimpressed with our lack of sewing ability (her face said it all, hahaha) but oh well, we did it! Then on Tuesday, Alyssa was at Jenna's again and started sewing the rows together (I was at work). On Wednesday, we went over and finished sewing the rows together and then found that the quilt was really big, and we didn't have enough fabric for the back. So we cut off about a foot or so from each end, and it looked better shorter anyway. So it became 13 squares per row, and still 11 rows. On Thursday, Alyssa borrowed the Cox's quilting frame and set up the quilt and it's insides (while I was at work and then visiting teaching), and started tying the quilt. I contributed 3 ties. Then we went to work pinning the edges getting ready for the final sew. We were going to blind stitch it by hand on Friday evening but then I was emergency called into work and Alyssa got lazy - ok fine, she actually had other things to do and Jenna convinced her that sewing it would be faster and sturdier (I agree). So Saturday morning, Alyssa headed to Jenna's to complete our project and turn it right over to Bethany that afternoon as her birthday gift. Thanks to Jenna for letting us invade her house and use her machine all week!

And that is the story of our quilting abilities. I think we are going to make another one sometime. I was impressed with us when we were finished. Isn't it preeeeeetty!

Utah Flash

According to wikipedia.org, the Utah Flash "are a team of the NBA Development League that began playing in 2007... The Utah Flash is the affiliate team for the Utah Jazz and the Boston Celtics."

So naturally, one of our RAH activities was going to one of their games since they play in the UVSC McKay Events Center. I wouldn't think that the Flash would play there, but they are relatively new and the attendance for games are pretty low still. But they'll probably grow over time.

They hooked our guys up with those noise maker things that you bang together, as well as a bunch of free shirts. Not everyone got a shirt unfortunately, but the majority of the 35 participants in attendance got one, so not too shabby! We also won a pizza... too bad a 12 slice pizza doesn't exactly feed 40 people (that's 35 + 5 staff). Anyway, it was a pretty intense and close game... With 1.7 seconds left the score was 100-99 in favor of Idaho. The Flash has possession of the ball, the Flash player shoots... and... and... aiiiiiir baaaaall. The buzzard blows. (Did I really write buzzard? Um, I meant buzzer... thank you, Alyssa). Idaho wins by 1. Sad day. It's also sad that I can't name any of the players. But not that sad because even if I did know any of their names, YOU probably wouldn't know who I was talking about... am i right?

Anyway, we had fun, and our seats were relatively close (that's part of our group pictured below), and so overall it was a pretty exciting activity.

The Circus Came to Town!

My friend Andrea and I decided to go to the circus last Saturday night. It was the Jordan World Circus (I'd never heard of them however) and they were performing at the UVSC McKay Events Center.... which to me is a very unlikely place to host a circus. Of course, they host a lot of things in that building that I wouldn't think would be there... Anyway, it wasn't just the two of us, there was actually a small group of us... including a couple of kids even!

I don't think I've ever been to a circus before... well not that I can remember so this was very exciting for me. They advertised lions to be at this event and yet that was such a lie. No lions anywhere to be found. The elephants were pretty sweet though. It was adorable when they hung onto each others tails! People could pay to ride the elephants, small horses, or camels before, at intermission, and after the show.

The show consisted of the typical circus things... a tight rope walker (one pictured above doing a back handspring), unique talents (like the lady pictured above hula hooping like 25 hula hoops), flexibility, acrobatics, trick horse riders, animals doing human things.... and after the show, I decided that the circus is really a completely random event that displays super human strength, unbelievable human tricks and talents, and animal training that might be borderline animal cruelty...

This is the aeronaut people who displayed their super human strength. The picture on the right is the guy holding the girl on a rope thing by his teeth... hey Clarence, how do you get teeth that strong?! There were lots of other acts that happened, like one girl was swung around and around on a pole super fast by her neck somehow, and animals -like poodles and camels and horses-trained to do interesting things, oh and clowns that were really obnoxious... but for some reason clowns and circuses go together, and several other things that you just have to see for yourself.

I would have to say that the best part of the show were the trick horse riders, and the elephants. Of course, the elephants were only adorable until you see them up close... and then the only thing that I could think to say was, "they're so.... WRINKLY." Hahahahaha.