In Which We Experience First Snow

 Sacrament Meeting Art #53:  December 28, 2014.

Last week, I sang in the choir in my church.  It was the Christmas program, so I sat up on the stand the whole time.  That makes it hard to color, so last week there was no SMA.

But this week, I have decided to do one of my friend's Instagram photos.  I changed it a little.  This was the first snow where she lives and her husband had slid off the road.  I took out the truck, and tire tracks leading to the accident.  I also took out the fence behind the ditch.  Which makes it look like I took out the ditch, too.  That wasn't intentional, though.  The original photo is below.

What a gorgeous picture!  It was taken on November 13th.

Her husband was okay, and didn't suffer any injuries thank goodness.

The truck is also okay, by the way.

I hope you have had a very wonderful Holiday Season and have an amazing 2015!

In Which Stars Glitter In the Sky

Sacrament Meeting Art #52: December 14, 2014.

This series is almost over, you guys!  Should I keep going and do this forever?  I don't know if I will want to do it forever, but I think we can next year.  What do you think?

This is another Christmas picture.  It's Kaleb's birthday today, so I asked him what I should do.  He said I should do a Christmas tree with presents around it.  I didn't really want to do that, but I did like the Christmas tree idea.  So here is a night sky in a forest.  Someone has decided it needed a little Christmas cheer and put lights and a star on the tree.  I guess they are battery operated lights that are immune to water damage.  I like the way it turned out at any rate.  Kaleb said he loved it, too.  I hope you enjoy it.

Have a great week!

In Which There Is Christmas

Sacrament Meeting Art #51:  December 7, 2014.

I like to call this one, "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear."  Or maybe just "A Midnight Clear."  Either one works.  It's Christmastime, so I decided I would do something Christmas themed.  I know Jesus was born in the city of Bethlehem and his stable was out in the open where pretty much everyone could see poor Mary giving birth.  But I just wanted to focus on Him, so there's not a lot of detail.  The focus is on the stable, the family inside, and the star.  Then the shepherd and his sheep are obeying the angel's command to go and see.

Christmas is wonderful.  

And I find that it is most wonderful when I focus on the reason I am celebrating.

  

"We honor His birth, but without his death that birth would have been but one more birth.  It was the redemption which He worked out in the Garden of Gethsemane and upon the cross of Calvary which made his gift immortal, universal, and everlasting."  

(Gordon B. Hinckley - President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from 1995-2008)

Here's one of my favorite Christmas songs:

I probably blog this every year, but it touches me every time I hear it, so I hope you enjoy, and have a marvelous Holiday season.

In Which We Time Travel To A Party

Waaaay back in July, I found out my sister was coming into town for her brother-in-law's wedding.  I had asked my mom if we were planning on throwing a shower for Jayden (my soon to be new sister).  My mom said we should, and then I thought well, we should try to have it while Michele is in town, so she can meet her in person (they'd hung out on Google) before the wedding.  I asked Michele if they would have time to fit a shower into their trip, and she got really excited.  Then I talked to Jayden and we set the date and figured out a theme.  We chose a "Time of Day" shower with a beach theme for the decor.

Then I made invitations and some paper decorations.  I got some paper boxes from the dollar store and decorated them and filled them with chocolate sea shells that I made and some Swedish fish as a thank you favor for people to take home.  We had the shower in the afternoon, so I suggested a cookie bar.  When I told Jayden that's what we were going to do, she got excited.  She likes cookies.

We played wedding Pictionary and the "He Said, She Said" game.  We also played the game where I asked Ben a bunch of questions and then asked Jayden the same questions and she had to answer the way she thought Ben had answered them.  Only this time instead of just recording Ben's voice, we video taped him.  That was fun.

I forgot to take pictures during the shower while we were playing games, but I got pictures of the decorations and opening some presents.  I know that's what you really want to see, so here they are:

 The invitations.

 The garland.  It says, "Ben & Jayden".

 A close up on the garland.

 More decorations.

 The table.

 The floral arrangement.

 Presents!

 I had to take a picture of this little guy! :)

It was a really fun party.  I'm glad we were able to pull it off.

Fire In the Sky

Sacrament Meeting Art #50:  November 30, 2014.

Kurtis and I were sitting with our friend during Sunday School today.  While she was looking through the pictures on my phone, I turned to Kurtis and asked, "What should I draw in Sacrament Meeting today?"  He thought about it for a few seconds and then his eyes grew wide as the idea connected from is mind to his voice.  He said, "Dragons."

So I drew him a dragon.

I shall call this "Fire In the Sky"  No, I won't.  That's lame.  Is it lame?  What do you think I should call it?

Also, can you believe I'm already at number 50 in this series!?  Thanks to my awesome kids to helping me get there before the end of the year.  They're awesome!

In Which Nature Is Super Amazing

I forgot to post these on Sunday, so we'll just pretend it is Sunday.  ;)
Last week, Kurtis and I were sick, so we did not go to church.  We made our kids go, though.  Kaleb had to be in the Primary program (For my not LDS friends, Primary is what we call Sunday School for the kids 3 through 11.  While they are in Primary, they learn songs about Jesus and gospel principles.  Near the end of the year sometime, the Primary presidency puts together a program with the songs they learned, scriptures, and personal testimonies and we call that the Primary Program).
Riley was relieved that he turned 12 before the program, so he didn't have to do it.  I was bummed that I didn't get to see this program.  But I did get to listen to it while I did other things during the rehearsal they had the Friday before.  I just wish that I had paid better attention.  Had I known I was going to be sick enough to stay home, I would have.
Any way, so I has started a picture for my Sacrament Meeting Art series on the 9th, but didn't finish.
Sunday was our Stake Conference (Seriously, the LDS church has it's own language.  The LDS church divides it's members into Wards, Stakes, Regions, and so on.  The congregation who meets together each Sunday is called a Ward.  The bishop is the head of the Ward.  Then there is the Stake which is comprised of I don't know how many wards.  It probably depends on where you live.  Utah would have a lot of wards in each Stake.  We call the person in charge of the stake our Stake President  Then there are a lot of Stakes in each Region and so on. It's like a phone tree system, I guess you could say.  Any way, we have Stake Conference twice a year, and we meet as a Stake and it's two hours of listening to speakers teach about the gospel.)  It was a really nice meeting, but it felt long.  I would say it's probably because we only had one rest hymn.  They should have done two (in my opinion).  Or a congregational hymn and a hymn performed by the choir.  The girl in front of me got up and said, "That was the longest two hours of my life!"  I think she was ten or eleven.
I managed to finish the picture I started on the 9th, and then two other works of art (with about fifteen minutes to spare).  I hope you enjoy them.

 Sacrament Meeting Art #47:  November 23, 2014.

My friend posted a picture of a magnificent sunrise, and so I told her I had to do it for my art series.  I don't see many sunrises these days.  Sunsets are more my style.  She said it would be awesome if I did that.  Here's her picture:

Awe inspiring.

Sacrament Meeting Art #48:  November 23, 2014

My cousin took a breath taking picture of an Arizona sunset he experienced recently and posted on Instagram.  I didn't ask for his permission, so I will ask for his forgiveness instead.  I just hope he likes it.  Here's the original post:

A photo posted by Jarret Sharp, Ed. D. (@staysharp) on Nov 11, 2014 at 4:56pm PST

I know, right?

Sacrament Meeting Art #49:  November 23, 2014.

During the last play I was in, I got to see the change of the leaves on the mountains.  I took this picture on my phone after arriving at rehearsal one evening and I decided to try it out in crayon.  I just took out the houses because I didn't want civilization in the picture.

Here's the photo: 

Not bad, eh?

In Which I Triple the Art This Time

Has it really been close to two months since I have blogged?  Yikes.  Well, it's time for Sacrament Meeting Art again!  No, I didn't abandon this project. My last picture took three weeks to do.  Then I forgot to post it.  Then we gave talks in church, and then my Halloween picture took two weeks to do, but I finished it today and a bonus one, so today, there are three Sacrament Meeting Art submissions for your viewing pleasure.  If you would like me to post my talk here as well, leave me a comment and I will.  It wasn't half bad.  It was on service.

 Sacrament Meeting Art #44:  September 28, 2014.

I re-checked my calendar.  This actually only took 2 weeks. Then the first weekend in October is always the LDS church's General Conference and we can watch it on our television here in Utah.  It's also available on the internet here.  I didn't draw those days.

But this is a picture my sister took while she was in Oregon visiting my brother.  They went to Harris Beach State Park, and she took this picture:

And then I drew it.

 Sacrament Meeting Art #45:  November 2, 2014.

I started this one last week, but Sacrament Meeting went short, so I didn't get to finish.  I'm not complaining though.  It's my Ode to Halloween.  Because Halloween is the most wonderful day of the year!  It's a picture of a graveyard and a vampire bat has landed on a headstone.

Sacrament Meeting Art #46:  November 2, 2014.

I finished the Halloween one fairly quickly, so I moved on to this.  It's a picture from my memory of the sky near Willard Bay.  Yesterday was my last performance in the play I was in called Angel Street.  Since August, I have been making the beautiful drive up to Perry, Utah.  Friday, was overcast and the sun was setting as I drove up there.  I looked towards Willard Bay as I drove along Highway 89 and there it was.  Spectacular.  I wish I could have pulled over and taken a picture.  I will have to make a special trip just to do that one of these days.

In Which We Visit Brain World

Sacrament Meeting Art #42: September 14, 2014.

Today, we have a guest post from Kaleb.  He wants me to tell you that this is a glimpse inside his brain.  It's called Brain World and in Brain World, the colors are all different.  The sky is green and the grass is purple.  Wood is black, not brown.  It's flippin' awesome is what it is!

Oh, and it's also raining in this picture.

 Sacrament Meeting Art #43: September 14, 2014.

When Rodney (my brother) posted the picture of the rocks, he also posted a picture of the sky with the sun behind a cloud.  I thought it would be a challenge to draw with crayons, and said I wanted to do it.  He approved, so here it is.  Finally.  It was a challenge.  I don't really feel like I did that great of a job on it either, but it's alright.  I also ran out of time, too (because I try to get them done before the closing song).  I didn't think that would happen.

Here's the original:

The Oregon sky.

Oh, and P.S. My sister tells me that the picture I did last week is actually in Southern Utah as they drove out of Goblin Valley, so now we know. ;)

In Which We Celebrate 40 Years

I went to Comic Con over the weekend.  It was pretty epic and I have lots of pictures to show you, but not yet.  First I must tell you something else.  

Thursday night (the first day of the Con), Kaleb was doing the dishes.  Somehow he had not noticed that there was a glass cup in the drain and turned on the garbage disposal.  I wasn't home yet, so Kurtis told me all about it after he picked me up. And I remember thinking, "I can't have any fun, can I?  Bad things seem to happen when I try to have fun."  This is only partly true.  It depends on the kind of fun that I try to have, it seems.  But I digress... 

But you can imagine the consequences of such a mistake.  Kurtis tried to get all of the pieces of glass out - he got most of them, but his hand was too big to fit in the hole.  So I did my best to finish the job.

The garbage disposal seized up and we have been without one for a week.  But Friday, before leaving for day two of the Con, I called my dad.  He said he didn't think he could come down to help me fix it until the 20th, but it turns out they could come help me this morning.  I am so grateful for that.  Seriously.  Kurtis had put the square bucket I use to keep my cleaning supplies in the sink and was making the kids dump the water out in the toilet when they were done doing the dishes.  I hated it.  Mostly because he also wouldn't let the kids put the dirty dishes in the bucket.  They had to go on the counter next to the sink, and that made it hard to find a place to cook dinner.  It was a whole thing.  I'm just glad it's over. ;)

When my parents came over this morning, they got right to work, and we discovered there is a reset button on my garbage disposal (I couldn't find it, but it's on the bottom).  We tried that first.  It didn't work.  So we used his tool that came with his garbage disposal and he got the blade to spin again.  And now it works!  We could hear a little piece of glass still spinning around in there, so I put my hand in it to find it.  My hand got cut, but I didn't pull anything out.  It's funny to me that I cut it today, but not at all when I was pulling bigger pieces out.  We knew it was still in there and then we could hear it while we used one of my garbage disposal cleaning things to test out the mechanism.  It sounded like it had fallen into the compactor and my dad felt that it was small enough that it would go through the pipe soon.

Before they left, I had to give them their anniversary present!  On September 5, 1974, my parents were married in the Salt Lake Temple.  They have now been married for 40 years!  My siblings and I think that is pretty cool.  So at the beginning of the year, I asked what we should do for them and we had a few ideas, but they didn't feel right.  Then the year went on and I forgot about it for awhile.  Then in July (I think), I went on Pinterest and went looking.  Someone posted that their kids had written 40 things they had learned from their parents over the years and I thought that sounded perfect.  So I finally emailed my siblings on the Sunday before their anniversary.  They all thought that was a great idea.  I said that because my parents had 8 children, if we all did it, we would only have to come up with 5 each.  Only one sibling declined to participate, so a few of us came up with a couple extras.

I almost forgot to give it to them while they were here, but then I saw it on the counter (I forgot to take a picture of it!), I was like oh! I must give you your present!

They loved it!  They sat down and read it together.  I took a few pictures of them reading it (because I left my video camera downstairs.  I meant to get it before they came, but they forgot to text me when they were on their way here).  Michele, the first thing you wrote, made mom break down in tears. It was awesome.  Some made her laugh and some made her cry, but they loved them all.  Thank you for participating in this.  It means a lot to them and mom said she would keep it in a special place.  Here is a great quote from Mom: "These are happy things! Why are they making me cry so much?"  I said, "So many feels!"  I don't think she got it, but that's okay.  ;)

 After I gave it to them, my mom requested a box of tissues while she read it.

 I know that's a lot of pictures, but I couldn't decide which ones were best.

I thought they were all wonderful.

After they left, I was so excited that I had a garbage disposal again, that I had to try it out.  It sounded like the glass piece that was in the bottom had somehow come back up, so I fished around, and found it.  Now it works perfectly and does not sound like something is stuck in it.  Hooray!

Such a tiny piece of glass creating so much havoc!