¡Adiós, mi muchacho precioso!

Seanie is off to do what he does best: Inspire love, show genuine and sincere empathy, teach righteous and good principles, serve others, lend a listening ear, bear others' burdens, provide a soft place for a hurting heart, all while acting in Christ-like ways. Always. Goodness to pete, I love this boy with all of my heart!

The elders and sisters at the MTC in Mexico City don't have a clue (but will soon learn!) what a blessing they have in Brother Sagers! Three months is probably going to speed by for Sean but will seem pretty much like three years for me!

Adios, my muchacho precioso. ¡Te quiero!

Here we have a mashup of Mexico mixed with a little bit of Cougar Nation, flanked by a bit of Americana. I like it!

Can you spy a little redhead up there with Hermano Sagers?

Whoa. We're getting serious now!

Wait. Did Sean go to Mexico or Madrid?

Stunning! Oh. And the cathedral is pretty spiffy too :)

¡Disfruta de cada minuto de su estancia, Seanie!

Gimme Your Best Caption!

Okay dokey! It's "Write Your Best Caption" time once again! 

Check out this adorable pic of Kimball taken after we saw "Aladdin" at the Hale Center Theater. Take a clooooose look. See Kimball's expression just there? What in sam hill do you suppose was going through Kimball's noggin at the time? Let's hear it!

You Ain't Never Had a Friend Like Me!

Our fantastic Hale Center Theater did it again and delivered another winner! This year's youth production was "Aladdin," and goodness to pete, people, the show was absolutely stellar! From the costumes to the acting, from the singing to the special effects, everything was done with top-notch professionalism and precision. No corners were cut and there wasn't a clinker in the bunch! We loved every minute of it!

Kimball might have been just a tad intimidated by Jafar, but not so much that he wouldn't hold Jafar's magical staff! I think Kimball is feeling the power here, don't you?

 The actor playing Genie was Robin-Williams-ish-hilarious! He was absolutely perfect for the part! This was the only character in the entire show played by an adult, but it was pretty obvious he had no problems letting his inhibitions go and acting like a kid--if you know what I mean . . . .

Hey! Let's play, "One of these things is not like the other!" Ready? Go!

Last year's production was "Sleeping Beauty." Also a fantastic show! See if you can spot a couple of similarities in these two pics below! Anyone? Anyone?

I have a caption challenge involving a photo from this outing coming up next time, so be sure to check back for that fun!!!

A Hiking We Will Go! (Plus, Spot the Mascots!)

A hike to and through Timpanogos Cave has long been an annual (quite nearly) tradition for me, dating way back to when I was small enough to be carried on my dad's shoulders for that long and steep trek to the top of the trail. I could be such a pill. My dad was such a good sport to allow me to ride on his shoulders. Not every dad would allow his 17-year-old to do that. Haha, JUST KIDDING! I was only 16. Sorry. I was about three. 

Anywho, even while my own little family was living in Illinois, we would usually make the hike to the cave during our yearly visits to Provo, so the memories of this activity are strong and wonderful and dear.

This year was no exception as a passel of us took to the trail! Kimball was such a sport and walked for about ten feet before hanging his head and saying that he was t-t-t-t-i-i-i-i-r-r-r-e-e-e-d-d-d-d. Just as my dad did for me, Jordan hoisted Kimball atop of his shoulders and carried an extra 40 pounds of weight to the top of that mountain! Papa lent his strong shoulders for little Kimball's benefit as well, and we all arrived at the cave without nary a tear. (Papa was close, but he toughed it out. jk again.)

After working up a mighty appetite, we decided it was time to grab our expectant mama and chow down at our local Costa Vida! Lest you think that everyone's faces suddenly morphed into a sci-fi motif, they were standing behind a wall of water in the top two photos. (Check out Kimball's little pug nose in the top pic. Why does that just come so naturally to a four-year-old boy, I wonder?)

Okay, now I'm going to put you on the spot and see if you can scout out our darling young elder as he makes two appearances in the photo below via of our family mascots. Ready? Go!

Have I Been Asleep at the Switch?

Okay, guys. I'm going to totally sound like a crazy old geezer here, but where did the last, oh, say, gazillion years go? Huh? Where? Where? I swear, time is speeding up by the day! 

No way could Dave and I have been out of high school for, like, eons. No way! Hey, you little kids out there, you'll see. Someday, you'll see what I'm talkin' about. It is just too surreal for words. No way do I feel like I belonged at our class reunion last Saturday night when two of our peers said they have 28 grandchildren! SAY WHAT NOW? I-I-I-I-I just don't know what to say to that.

On a different note, we really did have a blast seeing tons of people at our reunion whom we haven't seen since the day we graduated! Just an FYI, Dave graduated from Provo High, and I graduated from Timpview High (the first year it opened), and our two graduating classes have always held our events together. The Provo High/Timpview High rivalry didn't really kick in until a couple of years into the division of the high schools. 

I was very proud of Dave for eschewing his Bulldog green for my Thunderbird orange on this night, haha! It was totally unintentional on his part since he casually asked me what shirt to wear, and I *innocently* said, "Oh, wear that cute orange one!" I didn't point out the fact that he was wearing my school colors until we were already at the reunion when he simply had to go with it or go shirtless. Sweet. 

You can see the serious competitor in me coming out in that second pic on the left; we were playing "Name That Tune," and obviously, I was getting way into it :)

See that guy in the bottom pic on the right? He was my Virginia Reel partner in our fourth grade class dance program. The fourth grade, people!

See? Timpview orange for this guy! 

It was reeeeeeally weird to come back to this school and to see how much people have changed yet how much people have remained the same. I think there is a life lesson buried in there somewhere, and when I figure it out, I'll let you know.

This is the point where I tell Dave to stand up tall! High heels, anyone?

One of our dearest high school pals, Brad Wilcox of "The Continuous Atonement" fame. Also a favorite EFY speaker. Also a big hugger. Always has been. Always will be.

I admit I was pretty reluctant to go to this little ol' reunion since we haven't been since our 10th, and it's just weird to greet people that I haven't seen for years, but now I am so happy that we did go. This evening kind of put life in a unique perspective for me, and again, I'll let you know what that is when I figure it out.

Sidenote: We missed our last reunion five years ago because of this.

Happy, Happy Birthday to This Amazing Guy!

Today is Sean's birthday! My little keyboard is totally incapable of typing how much I love this guy. My words are totally inadequate to express how much I love this guy. My hugs are totally lacking in their ability to convey the complete love I have for this guy. So, I hope his heart will somehow just feel how much I love this guy! Oh, I am so blessed to be the mom of this guy!!!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SEAN!!!

Here we have awesome MTC-Spanish-teaching Sean

Here we have road-warrior Sean (see below for explanation)

Here we have ultimate Frisbee-playing Sean

Here we have motor"sicle" riding Sean

Here we have king-of-the-road Sean 

Alas, being run off the road on the Alpine Loop by a driver who didn't bother to stop(!) causing Sean to have to lay his bike down has left a bad taste in road-warrior Sean's mouth and he is hanging up his helmet. He feels that it was probably a blessing in disguise. 

All I know is that Sean is a blessing to me!

I LOVE YOU, SEANIE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Easing the Pain of an Ocean's Worth of Separation . . .

Ain't technology grand? A lovely member of the church in Sweden ran into these two adorable elders who asked her to please tell their families "hi!" I got to receive a bit of luv from my boy in virtually real time! That's what I'm talkin' about, right there! Now, pass some Kleenex.

Looky at Who Is Here!!!!!

YEEHAW! Guess who's back in town?

And, I couldn't be more excited!!! 

 Ashley, Jordan, and Bruce Wayne!*

Also back is handsome, smart, polite, adorable, funny, loving, gun-slingin' Kimball! (Yes, he is packin' heat from Deedee's dress-up box {see his twitchy left trigger finger})!

We are also graced with an appearance by Harvey Dent, the cowboy version!

*Kimball quite likes his super heros. Like, a lot. Like TONS. He has taken to calling Baby Boy Haug (expected to arrive November 14!), Bruce Wayne. If you don't know who Bruce Wayne is, go see a Batman movie or something.

Can You Spot Our New Mascots?

Sadly enough, our mascot, Aldolpho, is off all on his own, surfing along the coast of Australia (or thereabouts--long story involving a little 9-year-old friend of mine, but we'll save that for another day). This means that we suddenly became mascot-less! Ooh, the scandal! The drama! The angst!

Jag har goda nyheter! We now have two new mascots which we love and cherish even more than Aldolpho! Just goes to show that good things can come out of heart wrenching adversity, haha!

See if you can find Synnove and Soren as we make a nuisance of ourselves at Mimi's Cafe. And, yes, I gave them names. Had to. They are now part of the family, after all. 

*I should probably point out that Dave had just completed a day of service sponsored by his employer, thus his dapper appearance you see here :)

En födelsedag paket för Christian's pappa!

Well, Christian went ahead and made Dave's day! Mine too, for that matter! 

Even though this package was a bit belated, it simply makes it all the sweeter that Christian would take the time to think of his dear old dad's birthday when, in fact, he's got much bigger and more important things on his mind, such as shaking an apostle's hand. Yeah.

With gusto, now! C'mon, everybody join in and sing along!

Boy, Oh, Boy!

Baby Boy Haug is on his way!

Expected date of arrival: November 14!

We are tickled BLUE over the news!

Proud parents: Ashley and Jordan

Proud big brother: Kimball

Proud Deedee and Papa: Deedee and Papa!

A Day of Dads!

Happy Father's Day!  

 To my own dad!

To Jordan, the daddy of little man, Kimball!

To Grandpa Richard, dad to Dave!

And, of course, to Dave, the dad to my wonderful, outstanding, and incredible children!

All of these dads have made my life so rich, so full, so blessed. Happy, happy Father's Day to you all!

Wait. You Mean, Yer In Town?

Hey, hey! We loved the show! Yes, I'm talking about this show! Remember? Remember how I fretted over it with you in this post? 

Well, after the first couple of songs where I was holding my breath and wincing just once or twice over the "P" word (don't mind me; it's just my personal nails-on-the-chalkboard-type-of-word), we settled in for a fabulous night of song and gut busters! Way fun, guys!

But, then! Well, it was all fun and games until somebody needed to, well, you know, . . . the power of suggestion and all that. But, all three of us? Go figure.

Sorry for the funky lighting in these pics--we were in a sewer, after all.

The Mighty Tower of Pow . . . oh . . . wait.

"I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs . . .

but how high he bounces when he hits bottom."

--George S. Patton 

One of many episodes of "hitting the bottom."

*Just an FYI: This recipe is something else! Get it here if you want some mighty good eats.

Mother-Daughter Garden Tea Party

I really love my calling in my church. I get the great fun of throwing what ultimately end up being big parties every other week for about a dozen 10 and 11-year-old girls (and a boatload of 8 and 9-year-old girls are often included too).

Together with three other leaders (and, let's not forget Dave {Dave is always wrangled into my shenanigans}), I recently hosted a lovely mother and daughter garden tea party for almost fifty beautiful mothers and darling daughters, complete with finger food, lemonade, crafted earrings made by the girls for their moms, and both the girls and moms wearing and then sharing something owned by their own mothers.

The highlight (that's questionable) of the evening was when I took my place to lead the girls in the Mother's Day song which we had gone through only twice more than two weeks prior, and I didn't realize until at least four or five bars into the song, that I was leading them in the wrong song! Gee whiz, people! I don't think I've ever seen a group of girls look more befuddled. It was actually kind of comical to look at their panicky faces.

In my defense, I had no lyrics in front of me, no songbook in front of me, we were singing a cappella so no piano intro, and I was all sorts of nervous in getting the beginning note just right, so I launched into the wrong Mother's Day song! Also in my defense, I am not musical. Not one smidge. Nada. Nothin'. Completely bereft in that department. The fact that I was leading them in the song at all qualifies as the eighth wonder of the world. 

For the record, here are the lyrics of the song the girls sang (after I had managed to make a spectacle of myself):

 I often go walking in meadows of clover,

And I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue.

I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over;

Dear mother, all flowers remind me of you.

O mother, I give you my love with each flower

To give forth sweet fragrance a whole lifetime through;

For if I love blossoms and meadows and walking,

I learn how to love them, dear mother, from you.

The Latest and Greatest in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (did I get that right?) World!

I totally ripped off these pics from Ashley and Jordan and their Facebook walls without even asking. They were just too cute to resist posting here. May I sin first, repent later? Do you blame me, though? Just look at this little man!

Kimball has turtle power! RADICAL!

Be Sure to Remain in Your Seats for Act II: The Translation!

Because Christian was in the MTC on Mother's Day of 2012, I did not get to have this little face-to-face bit of luv. We made up for it in spades this Mother's Day as we Skyped with Aldste Sagers for about 90 minutes! I could just put this on a running loop and let 'er rip all day. 

Sigh.

Fact of the Day: According to Christian, Skype is a Swedish invention! I knew I loved that country from the get-go!