Convention

Last week I spent Wednesday through Saturday working at Nu Skin's global convention at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City:


I was asked to wear black pants while I was there, but all of the black pants I own are perpetually covered in cat hair. So I bought a brand new pair of pants and kept them in a plastic bag until just before I left the house (I probably won't wear them again).

I worked in several capacities in the Japan area in the product room. My favorite job was being a cashier, because it allowed me to interact with the distributors and I felt needed. Even though I only know two words in Japanese ("hello" and "thank you"), the ordering process was simple enough that I was able to function just fine with most orders. Occasionally there was a more complicated question that couldn't be answered by grunts and gestures, and that's when I would have to find someone to translate for me.

Here is what the product room looked like when the lines were long:


And here's what it looked like when the lines were empty (this was one of the boring times):


I stayed at the Shilo Inn, which had a free full breakfast each morning. One of my co-workers was staying on the eleventh floor and was told by a staff member that his room was haunted. Apparently there was a woman who, in 1978, threw her kids off the balcony from her eleventh floor room and then jumped off herself. Upon further inquiry we discovered that the "haunted" room, 1105, has been permanently closed. There is no longer a way to access the balconies from within any of the rooms at the hotel.

This is a picture of my room:


My favorite part of the convention was going running during the short break we were given on Friday morning. I ran through downtown Salt Lake to the Capitol building:



and enjoyed the view of the city from Capitol Hill:


As I left the convention on Saturday night with the co-workers I was carpooling with, we looked to the west and saw a beautiful sunset. I was grateful to be going home after a long four days, and I appreciated this reminder of the beautiful world we live in:


Overall, convention was a pretty good experience. But I'm glad it only happens once a year!

He can fix anything

Sometimes when life brings challenges I find myself wanting to withdraw or run away from the pain. I avoid making sacrifices even when I know I will be blessed for making them because I do not want to hurt. But sometimes the postponement of a sacrifice ends up hurting the ones I love, and though it may at times take far too long for me to do what must be done, I usually make the right decision in the end. Somehow, though perhaps I do not deserve it, I always end up facing the right direction. And then I realize that the pain of sacrifice only exists in the moment of decision, and that following through on that decision is the easy part. Though it may seem like I am free-falling for a brief time, I know God will catch me. I do not need to hide from the pain or build walls to protect myself. I simply need to face my fears with love and faith, knowing with absolute certainty that He can fix anything--even my broken heart.

The sun is rising, and I know I'll heal and be okay.

My Sewing Project

A couple of weeks ago I decided to do a little sewing project. It's been years since I even held a needle in my hand, but I did a lot of hand sewing when I was younger (sewing on buttons and cross-stitch and candlewicking and that sort of thing), and it came back to me pretty quickly. I've never had much talent for sewing, but I can get the job done.

My daughters make little stuffed critters they call "talkies," and so I asked them to show me how to make one. I took pictures along the way so I can do it on my own next time. Here is the completed talkie:


To begin the project I used a football-shaped pattern (about 3.5 inches from one end to the other) and fleece material. Apparently it can matter, depending on the material being used, which way the cloth stretches. The material I used was a little stretchy, so my daughters told me to make sure it stretched side-to-side rather than lengthwise when I cut out the pattern (otherwise instead of making a round circle you can end up with a kind of "squished" ball):


I pinned the pattern to the material and then cut it out:


Then I cut out three more:


The results were a bit uneven (I did my best, but scissors were never my specialty). So I took all four pieces and trimmed them:


And made them all the same size:


Then I divided the four pieces into pairs and sewed each pair together on one side:


This is what they looked like after I sewed them together:


Then I put one inside the other:


And sewed them mostly together, leaving a whole big enough for stuffing. At this point I turned the circle inside out so that the seams wouldn't show on the finished product:


Then I added stuffing (not the Thanksgiving kind):


And finally I sewed the top closed:


I used this fabric glue:

And cut out eyes:

And glued them on my talkie:


Then I cut out "W" for the mouth:


And glued it on as well:


Unfortunately I accidentally reversed the eye color, so the result looked a little like Little Orphan Annie (without pupils), so I decided to make an addition:


The only thing that remained at this point was to make feet. I started with a tombstone-shaped pattern:


And cut out four of them (two for each foot):


Then I trimmed them so they would be the same size:



And divided them into pairs:



And sewed them together (all exception the bottom). The result looked like finger puppets (which I might want to make for a future sewing project):


I then stuffed each of the feet:



And sewed the top together:


My wife showed me a technique she uses to sew things together without a seam, and this was the end result:


I then attached the first foot to the talkie, sewing around the entire foot so it would stay attached (this was a bit difficult and I got a blister from pushing and pulling the needle):


Then I took a random picture of my cat sleeping next to me (don't skip this step!):


And finished sewing the foot on:


I then attached the other foot:


And here is the finished product (along with the talkie my daughter made for my birthday a few weeks ago):

Learning to Ride a Bike

My 9-year-old son recently learned to ride his bike. He has been trying to learn to ride off and on for the past few years. For at least six months he has been doing really well with balance, but starting and stopping have eluded him. So two weeks ago I took him down to his elementary school where there is a gently sloping parking lot and taught him how to ride. He is now able to do it on his own and I am so proud of him! As soon as he was independent and I realized I didn't have to run alongside him anymore, I went over to the tailgate of my truck to record his mad skills:

Reconstruction

I thought I'd report on the progress that's been made this week on cleaning things up after our toilet overflowed. There was so much water in the space between the upstairs floor and downstairs bathroom ceiling that the ceiling had to be removed before things could start drying out. We found out on Saturday that the Italian Phrases we have written on the walls will be covered by tape when the ceiling is replaced, so we will have to repaint them:



And this fan and dehumidifier had to run for about a week (it was like taking a bath in a wind storm for a while):


When they found mold in our upstairs bathrooms they quarantined them by putting plastic over the doors, and the mold removal is still in progress (but almost complete). They are running some kind of equipment in both of the bathrooms that is quite loud (louder than the fans that were running to dry our carpet):


This is the dresser I couldn't find on Monday (I looked everywhere for it and my wife didn't know where it was either). I finally found it in my son's bedroom:


This is the master bath (where the problem started) in "quarantine":


This is the equipment that was running in our bedroom for several days to dry our carpet (it's gone now, thank goodness):


They had to remove the bathroom doors and they are currently sitting in our bedroom:


This is the corner of our bedroom:


And this is our bed with everything stacked on it:


This is the makeshift "vanity" my wife set up in the kitchen so my daughters can still have time to get ready in the morning (now that there is only one working bathroom):


Today they are coming to do mold testing and make sure it is completely gone. I'm hoping they'll be take their noisy equipment with them! And then we can finally begin the remodeling process for all three of our bathrooms (and put out bedroom carpet back the way it is supposed to be). It is interesting how much things can be thrown out of balance when you have a house in chaos. We're doing our best to work around things, but it will be so nice when the repairs are finally complete!