A Change of Scenery

We spent a wonderful week recently visiting my brother Michael and his family in beautiful Harrisonburg, Virginia. We couldn't have spent our vacation more pleasantly or in better company! We spent our drive there and back wishfully thinking about moving there. The Shenandoah Valley country is so beautiful and refreshing, not to mention the awesome neighbors we would have.

While Michael was hard at work during the day and the big kids in school, we played at the park

and later crashed the Children's Museum!



The girls loved playing with cousin Clara after school
and of course being reunited with Uncle Hyrum.
I turned 25 while we were there. Brittany watched the girls while Erik and I had lunch at a scrumptious Greek restaurant she recommended. Afterwards we drove to the arboretum and enjoyed a nice walk around. That evening we had more of Brittany's fabulous cooking, followed by Family Home Evening and then a fun card game after the girls went down. I felt so pampered!

On our last day there, we went to an Amish fall festival. So fun!

Corn Hole: fun and rather addicting

Laundry the old-fashioned way: the girls really got into this

Spinning wool and flax
Pressing apples into cider--yum!

Showing off our cool crafts: these yarn dolls were pretty cute

What could possibly top off a fun morning and fabulous week better than hand-cranked ice-cream?

Thank you, Weilers!

5th Anniversary

I have gotten behind once again! Here's update #1 on what our family has been up to this summer.
Erik and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in May with a trip to Asheville, North Carolina. We stayed at a delightful bed and breakfast called the Wright Inn. Asheville was a fun place to visit. We ate at some yummy restaurants, including a place called Tupelo Honey's, which apparently is the town favorite. We would definitely recommend it! We visited an art museum and the local farmer's market and enjoyed just walking around downtown.

It rained a good bit while we were there, but we were able to work around it for the most part and do everything we had planned. We drove up in the mountains one day for a hike when the rain had let up. We chose to hike to the summit of Mt. Pisgah at about 5700 feet, one of the higher peaks in the area.

The drive was beautiful.

About halfway through our hike, though, we realized we were hiking into a cloud.

Not the greatest view at the top. It was a good workout, though!

One our way home we stopped a few hours for lunch in Greenville, which is on our list of cities we are interested in looking for a job in when Erik finishes residency (less than a year away--yikes!). It's a nice city. The downtown area is so new and clean compared to Atlanta, and it felt much more friendly and welcoming to me. (I don't get those vibes walking around downtown Atlanta.) There's a very family-friendly park in the middle of the city with walking/biking trails and waterfalls. They have a big grassy section with an amphitheater that looked fun too. We enjoyed our walk.

All in all, a wonderful and relaxing trip!

It's been a happy 5 years!

The Pixie Cut

I have secretly wanted a pixie cut for years. But a few fears have always held me back.

Like the fear that I would look like I did in third grade when my mom asked a friend to give me the same haircut she'd given her 4-year-old daughter--after said daughter had given herself a haircut....Being the flat-chested, tom-boyish, baggy-clothes-wearing 10-year-old that I was, I was not infrequently mistaken for a boy during the time it took to grow my hair out again. And, despite my flat-chest, baggy clothes and tom-boyish nature....I did not want to look like a boy. And it hurt.

I've gotten over the pain for the most part. But the fear of looking like a boy has remained...

Fear #2: What if people didn't like it? How could I face the world?

Fear #3: I don't know how to style my hair.

Over the last year, my secret desire grew stronger and stronger, partly due to the fact that I shared it with some of my sisters and sisters-in-law, who were very encouraging (with one exception--ahem--Melody). One in particular was so persuasive and optimistic that she decided she wanted one herself and went and got one!

It was like watching someone take the first plunge into the pool, resurface with a big smile and say, "It feels great!"

Then the scardie-cats like me want to jump in too.

So at the end of April, I took the plunge.

It felt good.

Really good.

And what of my fears?

Resolution #1: Wear pink. If that's not enough, you can go get your ears pierced with your 12-year-old sister. She'll even hold your hand.

Resolution #2: I finally decided that I didn't really care whether or not other people liked my haircut. As long as I was happy with it, I could face the world. If my husband liked it, even better! If some people--like those sweet, well-meaning 12-year-old sisters--didn't care for it, I'd survive.

Resolution #3: Still figuring it out.

Most of the response has been very positive. Several people have told me it makes me look like I'm 12. (But at least not like a 12-year-old boy!) There have been a few people who have expressed their disapproval, and even more, I think, who don't know quite what they think.

My favorite response so far, though, was when someone said I look like a Russian spy.

That's me. Stay-at-home mom by day. Russian spy by night.

Come see the Temple!

The Atlanta Georgia Temple is open to the public for one more week. Come see.



Click here for more details. http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/openhouse/
We'll try to go Wednesday night. Let us know and we can meet you there.

A grand evening

The LDS Temple in Atlanta has been under renovation for almost two years and is finally finished. We are so excited to have our temple open again! It will be rededicated in May. Prior to the dedication (or rededication) of temples, there is an "Open House" period during which the public is invited to come tour the temple. There's a link for more details in the previous post.

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to play for a special dinner group outside the temple. I didn't see the guest list but I know the governor and some senators were in attendance, as well as ecclesiastical leaders of other faiths, and Martin Luther King III.

Pretty cool.

But to be honest, I was pretty oblivious to most of the people there. However, the guy who sat closest to my seat at the piano did catch my attention. He didn't quite seem to fit at the table. He was enormous. When he stood up after the dinner was over, I gaped like an idiot. He had to be over 7 feet tall.

And, in fact, he is. After describing him to my husband later on, he accurately guessed who it was: Dikembe Mutombo. Since I am woefully ignorant of all things in the world of professional sports, this name meant nothing to me, but I did recognize his face in the picture my husband showed me. And I have since read up a little on this man and am quite favorably impressed. Which is saying something because professional athletes do not generally interest me. (did I hint at that already? Sorry.)

Dikembe Mutombo is a graduate of Georgetown in linguistics and diplomacy. He speaks a host of languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and several African dialects. He is a former NBA shot-blocker star, but you're probably already ahead of me there. He is also a great humanitarian and has done much good with his time and money in Africa, particularly in his native country, the Democratic Republic of Congo. He started the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation to improve living conditions there and has worked hard to help fight and prevent diseases. Through his foundation and personal contributions, he built a big hospital in his hometown. He and his wife have six children, including four adopted.

Doesn't he sound like a nice guy?

Dikembe is in the gray-checkered suit at the far left. The piano was right next to him. You really can't appreciate from this photo how huge he looked at the table.

And here he is about to go into the temple. The man standing next to him is a friend of my husband's family. He is quite tall. Compared to most.

So--that is my first and likely my last tribute to an NBA star. Now enough about the VIPs. Time to introduce the musicians!

Janelle on the violin
Kristin on the flute
And yours truly on the beautiful (and slightly coveted) grand

We switched off throughout the evening with a girl on the harp who was absolutely fabulous. I could have listened to her all night! Is it too late to start harp lessons?

I can't tell you what a delightful time I had practicing with these lovely ladies. It was almost like going back in time....to a former life!

And look who I bumped into! My two favorite VIPs in all the world.

March Madness

In honor of March Madness each year, the male pediatric residents at Emory band together and grow mustaches. At the end of the month, everyone in the program gets together and watches a slideshow featuring all the participants. These guys are quite creative, and the slideshow is hilarious. Then the ballots are cast, and a winner is selected. Donations are made in the winner's name to the Joe P ralley run - a 5k race to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer in honor of Joseph, the son of one of our residents who died of brain cancer - link.

Last year Erik had a lot of fun participating. The guys actually had beards for most of the month...

...and then were supposed to shave them on the last day.

This year we had a lot of family-related events happening in March, so Erik opted out of the contest. He did refrain from shaving at the very end of the month to show a little manly spirit.

So here's Erik with a few of the guys who were on call that night. I think they were going for a family portrait pose here?

I personally think Anne tops them all with her Green Monster Smoothie mustache.

Have you tried one yet?



Anne's current favorite is the blueberry-banana green monster.

• 2-3 cups spinach
• 1-1.25 cups milk
  
• 1 tablespoon flax (optional)
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• ice

Our birthday girl

Abigail requested a family cookout for her birthday dinner on Saturday. So we went to our new park down the street (!!) in the late afternoon. We invited some new friends there too--a sweet family we met recently (at a different park) from Colombia. They have a beautiful four-year-old girl named Eva who made instant friends with Abigail. Erik and I clicked almost as quickly with her parents. (Erik served a mission for our church in Colombia, in case you didn't know.)
The weather was perfect. The food was yummy. The company was delightful. The photography was...well, an afterthought, as usual.

Anne wore her "sassy senorita" shirt for the occasion.

These adorable little girls were much more interested in playing than in eating, but no surprises there.

The next day we joined the big Weiler clan for a family dinner to celebrate all our March birthdays: Uncle Tommy, Uncle Hyrum, Cousin Jane, and Abigail. Fun times!

Abigail has shared a birthday dinner with Uncle Hyrum every year so far, which I think is pretty special.

The birthday buddies

Happy birthday to our big four-year-old!