Thirty years of pool

and wedded bliss. Okay maybe not so much pool. Lonny and I have been married thirty years today. Jenny and Emily made us these marvelous cupcakes while we were out for dinner last night. Geoff is still asking why all the pool balls have the number thirty on them. He is such a smart boy I am sure he will figure it out soon enough.

Winter Wonderland

We had a Christmas Eve blizzard the likes we had never seen before. Whether you were dreaming of a White Christmas or not you got it. I briefly wondered if we would be sorry we didn't have sleds and snow boots wrapped up under the tree. Thank goodness we got this hill for the kids some ten years ago.

Jon shoveled a trail to the summit.

Kirsten can scream like a little girl. And she did all the way down.

Eric and Jon came down in a puff of smoke. Or was that a cloud of snow?

Jon smiling while missing his socks.

The shovel protects the face from flying snow and errant fences.

It's as if he hasn't seen snow in a week?

Oops, someone forgot the windshield.

Day two. The lighting has deteriorated but not the sledding. Alayna makes her first attempt to survive the Townsend's backyard shenanigans.

Geoff waves to the spectators

just before he goes over the edge. His favorite stupid trick.

Sledding for now, it's still too cold to sit on the porch.

For unto us a child is born

and then they grow up. I had my children draw a picture of the nativity when they were each five years old. What began 23 years ago is now stitched, framed and hanging on the wall. Finally. I think it was worth the wait. Justin drew the picture above. He looked at a picture that had originally inspired the project, but Justin loved to draw and his interpretation has been a Christmas decoration around our house for many years.

Jenny's picture improved on Justin's and hers has also been around for years.

Geoff's may be the most realistic rendition but only exists through labored persuasion. The inclusion of only the bare essentials of the three required individuals reminds me of his stubbornness even when asking just for simplicity.

Eric's is authentic overachiever. The stable, the star, the manger, the stacked stones. . . the stones? We don't know what they are either.

Emily put in everything but the kitchen sink, the lamb is even talking. Her Mary does appear to be related to a teenage mutant ninja turtle, however.

Random things

from the last week or the last century. My mom is now 77 years old. Happy Birthday mom. This is her college graduation when I was probably 11. Hello, I am on a journey to tower over my older sister. I bought the pink dress from the Sears catalog. I loved it so much that when they didn't have my size I ordered the chubby version. Should I be happy I appear to be wearing a potato sack?

Jenny came last week with the kids and a friend who also brought her two kids. The unrelated little girl started calling me grandma which I thought was cute. And then the realization. . . is it good to look like you should be called grandma? Jenny arrived just in time to see Emily in The Nutcracker on Friday night. Emily was the Butterfly Doll. She had a solo dance while everyone on stage (and supposedly the audience) watched. The dance was lengthy and just really adorable. We were thrilled to have Jenny, Kirsten,and some neighbors and friends attend because. . .

Houston had record snow last Friday. Flights were canceled, including Lonny's return flight to see Emily dance. His boss eventually chartered a plane to come pick them up, but it was too late. We are hoping with all the other audience members that came to see her the likelihood of her eventual therapy is lessened.

Bowling 101

I don't normally consider bowling a spectator sport but all three boys are at BYU and they have been taking a class together this semester. (I guess Quantum Physics was full.) I had to make the trek to Provo just to see it for myself.

Look at that technique Geoff. Wait, look at all those orange bowling balls. What is wrong with them?

There was also an extraordinary amount of time watching the boys play Wii Golf when the brother from the other mother drove in to town. Jon had gone skiing over the weekend. Emily and Jon hiked the Y. The annual Turkey Bowl was a family only event. Lonny and I walked past all the apartments we once called home in Provo. Just kidding. That would have taken all day. We needed the exercise though,since the rest of our vacation was spent eating out at all our favorites like Five Guys, In and Out, Cafe Rio, and Brick Oven (those Provoans sure no how to eat).

And who knew Cosmo also eats at Brick Oven after going to the BYU football game? I can't wait to tell you about my new favorite (or least favorite, I haven't decided yet) Provo restaurant.

And don't forget Thanksgiving dinner where we stuffed ourselves and yeah Geoff, you give me the pose and I run with it. At least Kirsten thought you were amusing.

Good thing we finished up with a round of "real" golf.

Nobody wants to play with me again. I made three hole-in-ones. I was just making up for the time I got a twelve or some similar number.

Goodness Gracious.

Wasn't it just last week when I mentioned Eric has a counselor in his stake presidency that went to law school with Lonny?

On Sunday, Geoff and Alayna went to a fireside put on for engaged couples by his stake presidency. One of the counselors asked Geoff his name. Then he asked him if he knew a Lonny Townsend. Geoff said he's my dad. He told Geoff he had gone to law school with Lonny. Then he told Alayna that she was marrying into a great family. I think she was wondering and you just can't buy endorsements like that. Thanks G. Brinton.

I really like this new service BYU is providing to parents. First you look here and read about the devotional and then you can see if your kid attended.

Mormons win!

We won our first valedictorian trophy last night. We attended a school fundraiser where we played a version of Are you smarter than a Cascia hall kid? Our friends kids go to Cascia, a Tulsa Catholic Prep School and they dared us into playing along. You know, if you think you're so smart, prove it. Okay, maybe not exactly. At the conclusion we had to walk up front to be announced as the winners and claim our trophies. There were gasps and shouts of "the Mormons won" which is not the venue I thought I would hear that remark.

It will go down in history as the first trophy for some of the participants. I'd like to thank our Catholic friends, they are the best, and such good sports, for allowing us this opportunity, which is how I was going to begin my acceptance speech, but nobody wanted to hear it.

Best Behavior

recommended. So what if my son just stuck his arm up to his elbow in to the punch bowl at the ward party? Will not matter. I'll never see these people again. Uhm, maybe not. We may be on our way to crossing paths twice with everyone? Eric informed me Sunday that they had their stake conference that morning. The counselor in the stake presidency had his mother speak, turns out she is Mrs. T. Madsen. Well guess what? Lonny went to law school with Mrs. T. Madsen's son. Same son. Eric already has a roommate named J. Elder. He is the son of friends from our ward in Seattle. Lonny was the bishop then, she was the relief society president. Eric and J. were not yet born.

Pictured above is Justin and I in front of our apartment in Provo. We lived on the ground floor. Dave and Sandy T. lived directly above. When we moved to that apartment in December of 1980, I was pregnant with Justin and she was pregnant with a daughter. Those two babies, our firsts, were born while we were neighbors. We were friends but lost contact. Fast forward to 1995 when we moved to OK and into the same ward. By then we both had three more kids, almost the same ages. We both had daughters in February of 1983. We had a son and they, another daughter five years later. And we had another son in 91 and they another daughter the following year. That's probably enough of the same but. . . . Lonny met Dave's future sister-in-law when she was about 12 years old. Lonny spent time at her parent's home and taught with her father when he was a missionary in Philadelphia. And now. . . .Lonny spends a fair amount of time with Sandy's brother-in-law. They volunteer together;) The BIL was good friends at BYU with guys that grew up in Lonny's hometown and were from his ward.

And now our two kiddos are getting married. So yeah, you never know who your child is going to marry. Send them off to BYU and they could marry a stranger or maybe the child of your upstairs neighbors from 30 years earlier. It could happen. Geoff and Alayna are probably age 15 in this picture and 16 below. There is at least some period of time and energy spent not getting his haircut between the two photos.

And one more picture below when Alayna and her cousin went with us to Kansas to pick up Eric from space camp. I'll spare them the embarrassment of posting additional photos from Halloween, Christmas, and New Year's while they were growing up. No guarantees for the future. (And sorry Eric about the glasses pix but you can't have an "after photo" without a "before incident").

We are singlehandedly

stimulating the Russian economy. Lonny leaves for work and brings home a check. I leave for the store and bring home the shoes. Emily leaves for dance and brings home the Russian pointe shoes all worn out. It's a vicious circle. Some parts have been repeated more often than others.

I left out the step of having to sew on the ribbons and elastic. (And people ask what I do all day? There you go.) The ribbon and elastic would normally be pink but these shoes are for the Nutcracker performance. I have yet to paint the shoes black, but I will, because Emily is a black butterfly.

The pictured shoes above left Russia pink, were painted purple last spring for recital and then I painted them black just for these very portraits. They are too worn out for dancing and I am worn out with this explanation.

That's all folks.

Justin is 28 years old and I remember taking him trick or treating when he was a baby. It was shameless sugar extortion. We were poor starving college students. The Halloween sweets may have lengthened our life. Emily is going to a party this evening instead of knocking on the doors of our neighbors. Is it the end of an era or just a blip on a lengthy string of Townsend tricksters?

And is she even sporting a costume, I mean our address includes the word Oklahoma? Well, barely. Those boots may not have seen the inside of a barn but they were purchased while standing beside three cowboys and I don't mean OSU fans. Does that count toward authenticity or can it pass for dress up?

Cry wolf.

Emily missed dance class on Thursday so she could sing and dance at the 7th grade choir concert. It was a monster popularity contest. I know you're thinking "well, uhhh, isn't that the definition of middle school?" No really, Emily was a "wolfette," a backup dancer for the singing "Werewolf" performing "Cry, Wolf." It was adorable, we really loved it, and who can say that truthfully about middle school?