Behold, The Video Extravaganza

A few months ago I was called as the Ward Videographer. Basically I was called to help the youth in my ward to make a video that would then be presented at the Stake Video Extravaganza. We spent several weeks writing, practicing, making costumes, and filming. Please keep in mind that this video was filmed in a grand total of 3 hours, on a small handheld camera, and edited with the most basic editing software. That said, I am very proud of the final product and had a wonderful time working with the youth to make this video.

 I have also uploaded the video to youtube and you can view it by following this link:

http://youtu.be/Kda9xWcyRtM

Enjoy!

Intramural Football

Cody keeps telling me that he is done playing football, and then he signs up for one more season. I don't mind as long as he doesn't get hurt- he doesn't have a good record though. 

This time is different because the teams get to play in the Golden Gophers Stadium and this appealed to Cody :) 

The TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota. 

The 'Minnesota Mafia' in action. 

Cody plays with some other guys in his program. They also played football in the fall and basketball in the winter. 

Team shot after a successful game.

Easter Weekend

I know this post is a little late, but better late than never!

Easter weekend also happened to be my Spring Break, oh how I wish I could have that week all over again! Only 23 more work days to go, but who's counting? :) 

For those of you that don't know, Cody is a golf nut. He talks all the time about quitting school and becoming a professional golfer, he dreams about golfing, and I regularly catch him taking practice swings in our kitchen (with and without golf clubs). The weather has been so nice lately that Cody has been able to play quite often- but not enough according to him :) 

On Friday we were able to go on a golfing trip to Red Wing, MN with our friends, Anna and Mitch. Cody and Mitch golfed and Anna and I drove the carts and chatted. I had a blast! It was a bit chilly, but it was nice to be outside and talk with friends. Unfortunately I was only able to snap two pictures before my camera battery ran out :(

After golf we drove to Prescott and had lunch outside on the patio. It felt so nice to be outside, I even got my first sunburn of the season. But that's not saying much because it doesn't take much sun for my nose to turn bright red :) 

Saturday I worked on editing the youth video for the Video Extravaganza and dyed Easter eggs. 

Behold the ugliest egg of Easter

This picture doesn't do it justice, it was pretty nasty.

Growing up we always got a new church outfit for Easter. My sweet mom sent Cody and I an Easter basket fully stocked with candy and a tie and dress for us to wear on Sunday. 

Happy Easter!

Summer Internship

It's official! Cody and I will be spending the summer in Lee's Summit, Missouri!

Cody will be doing an internship at St. Lukes East and I will be at the pool and working on our scrapbook :) We are excited to know where we will be going and I am grateful that it is only 8 hours away! (Cody applied to a few places in Florida that would have taken us 25 hours to drive to.) We are also excited because we will only be 4 hours away from Cody's parents who will be living in Oklahoma soon. Hopefully we will have plenty of chances to go visit them this summer.

We are grateful for the fun adventure that is ahead of us!

Video Extraveganza

I recently received calling #4 in our ward, that's right #4! Is there a record for this kind of thing? In case you don't believe me, here are my current callings:

1. Visiting Teacher

2. Relief Society Chorister

3. Ward Missionary

4. Ward Videographer

You read that right, I am the ward videographer- that's how it was read over the pulpit. 

Basically I am in charge of helping the youth to make a video. You may have heard of roadshows, well this is very similar except we present videos instead of actual plays at a night that is being called the 'Video Extraveganza!'. 

We had less than 2 months to pull this off, so we got to work right away. We brainstormed, wrote a script, and this week I finished the costumes. Our plan is to film this week, edit the next, and then we submit the video. I think I am going crazy! I have never edited a video, but I am learning a lot and hopefully this is not a total disaster. 

One thing I knew I could do was costumes. It is in my blood- my mom sewed all of our Halloween and ballet costumes, my sister is studying Costume Design and I like to be crafty at times :) As part of the video all of the characters are flowers. We decided to create flower headpieces for everyone to wear and I finished them this afternoon! I was so proud of my accomplishment that I took pictures and am going to show them to you now. Please be amazed! 

This is what I started with- some paper plates and a pile of cardboard cut into petal shapes.

Next, I used my handy, dandy stapler to attach the petals.

I then painted one side yellow.

The other side was painted blue, pink, or purple. I then finished them off with some acrylic so they look shiny. 

 

Overall it was a success! I can't wait to see how they look on camera!

RIP Molly

A few weeks ago the family cat, Molly, passed away. She had dropped to four pounds and the vet thought she had cancer and was blind in one eye. 

Molly joined our family in the fall of 1999. She was a wild cat that had been caught by the humane society. I still can't imagine how they caught her because she was so fast. She was nicknamed 'spit fire' at the shelter because she hissed at anyone that came near her cage. We brought her home and loved her, and she hissed and bit in return unless we caught her right after a nap, then she purred and loved us. She may have been a mean old cat, but she was our mean old cat. 

I have many memories of Molly: One time she jumped out of my lap and her back claw cut my face from my chin to my eye. She may have been mean a lot, but when I was sick she would come lay by me. She used to run from the top of the stairs to the window in the living room and back. She hissed whenever she saw Ryan and one time he gave her some treats and she wanted to eat them but also needed to growl/hiss and she ended up sounding like she was saying 'yum, yum, yum'. If you were holding her while she heard bath water she would cling on and yelp because she didn't like the water. 

It's crazy to think that we had her for more than half of my life. Cody says that she is probably hissing and biting Heavenly Father's hand right now- that's probably true :)

Bowling and Site Seeing

Cody has made it half way through the semester! And his Monday and Tuesday night classes are over! And he has the next week off for spring break! Unfortunately, I still have a full week of work next week :( So we decided to make the most out of our weekend and do things after I get off work next week. 

 

Cody's spring break started with a trip to the Mall of America to see the cast of the Hunger Games. Sadly I was at work :( There was a book signing and a Q&A session, but Cody said the line was too long for him to make it up to the front. Instead, he found out that the book signing was in the Microsoft store and pretended that he was shopping so that he could get a look at the cast. It was a success and I am successfully jealous. 

 

Friday night we went bowling with our friends Michael and Vanessa (Michael is in the program with Cody).

Cody and I did not plan to match. I wore my outfit to work and when Cody came to pick me up he was wearing a blue and white stripe shirt too!

We are obviously true blue BYU cougs :)

 

Saturday was gorgeous outside so we decided to visit the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. There was a guy playing the accordion and walking across the bridge made me feel like I was in Paris.  

Our next stop was the ruins of an mill that are on one end of the Stone Arch Bridge.

 

I can picture the Phantom of the Opera behind those doors.

 

 We have officially arrived in Minnesota. Since we weren't able to stop and take a picture at the 'Welcome to Minnesota' sign, we thought this could take its place :)

Our last stop was the famous spoonbridge and cherry

On a side note... we ordered a phone part from China and received this card along with our purchase. 

Cody read it to me in his Chinese voice- made my day :)