A Farewell Tour

Gosh... I don't even know how to start this post. How about the facts?

I have been attending the University 7th Ward for a little over 3 years and it was the best experience of my twenties. Hands down. U7 (as we affectionately call it) was a part of a "Singles Stake" through Arizona State University and allowed singles (not necessarily students) to stay in the singles ward until the age of 33. This stake has been home for many older, single working adults and has been a place where we could serve and be treated more like our adult, but married, counterparts and not super-YOUNG single adults. I've had tons of opportunities to serve and learn in the gospel and I've made some of my best friends through this ward. It was a fantastic 3 years.

You may have picked up on my usage of the past tense... Back in February, the Stake announced that the church wanted the wards to be refined to meet church policy. You see, there is no such thing as a "Singles Stake", only "Student Stakes" like at BYU. So, starting in August, the Tempe Arizona University Stake was to only include single young adults, ages 18-30, living in Tempe and/or were ASU students. I only met the first two requirements and so did about half the Stake... and I'm not even kidding. There were 8 wards, now there are 4. I hope this isn't coming across as bitterness. I understand the policy and I feel blessed that I at least had three great years in the 7th ward. So, now I'm in a family ward, trying to decide if I should start attending the newly created single's ward in my stake.

Anyway, I've wanted to post some kind of tribute to U7 for awhile, so the rest of you can appreciate what I'm talking about. I just put together a little slide show of some of my favorite pictures, memories and people from the ward. Also, I've posted a video of a song (in two segments... my camera had a 3 min time limit) that our Bishopric members performed at the final ward activity. On the left is our first Bishop, Scott Kimball, the present Bishop, Paul Sandstrom, and our 2nd counselor, Ron Mabry.

I hope you enjoy just a taste of what I consider some of the best days of my life!

Presenting... the new me!

My camera is broken right now, so Jill had a little photo shoot with me on her camera... and, well, how do I choose which fabulous pictures to actually post.

Truth is, I just wanted to post my new hairstyle but didn't want to take the time to really blog about it. So, what do you think? I've had "long" hair for a couple of years now but just really felt the need for something new and fresh. So I opted for the ever-so-trendy A-line bob...

Oh, but this is blog worthy... my hairstylist (who I adore) ALWAYS gets my hair color all over my face and hairline, so I look like this for a day or two after my appointments.

Ode to Kathy...

... my blogging inspiration.

(Kathy's on the left... Jill Jill's on the right.)

My friend Kathy has a fantastic combination of humor and artistic creativity that allows her to see things in a different, and usually comical way. Her blog is proof of that. And so are these "wall decorations."

So, one of my very first blog entries I talked about my new house. Some of you may remember that I named my office after Kathy for all the hard work she put in with me to get my house ready for move in. While I was on the Spendlove women Bahama Mama vacation, she left her "mark" in the closet of the office...

The family who lived in the house before me had these precious prints with the ages and dates inside the closets. Now I have these precious size 11 prints from when Kathy was 298 months old. (Who says you have to stop counting a person's age by months anyway?)

Another display of Kathy's style... I was at her house last weekend (while she was in FL, so she doesn't know about this...) and I found myself staring at this wall display:


Who would have thought that clumping all these different frames on a wall would look so cool? Oh, Kathy would. Of course. As I said to her roommates that day, "Well, that's Kathy for you. I think she could smear poop on a wall and it would look good."

But don't really try that, Kathy.

I'm in 24th grade now...

Can it really be time already?? For me, it is! :(
Mesa Public Schools started back today.

My feet hurt from standing all day and I've never had to
pee so bad in my life from all the water I drank after talking all day!

1 day down, 179 more to go.
I swear going back to school is harder
on the teacher than it is the kid.

SOOOO much closer than Lubbock!

Last week... actually a couple weeks ago (July 27-30), I decided I needed to get out of town one more time before school starts (Monday, BTW) and I'm stuck here forever. So, I hopped in my car on a Sunday afternoon and 5 short hours later, I was in San Diego where my brother Stuart just moved with his family. They've been out in Lubbock, TX for the past 5 years working on his PhD in Clinical Child Psychology at Texas Tech. They're now out in San Diego for his internship and I LOVE that they are SOOOO much closer than Lubbock. Unfortunately, Stuart had to work the majority of the time I was there, so I didn't get to see him as much. BUT, he's got a great wife and 3 super duper cute kids that kept me entertained.

On Monday, we went to the beach... oh, how I love the beach! I watched Summer do some boogie boarding.

She's a total natural at the California Girl bit!

I helped Spencer guard his food from his sandy little brother Nephi.

I had him come sit on his boogie board,

but the kid found that perhaps HE was his worst sandy enemy.
Check this out...

And what would a day at the beach be without some
"plumber in training" shots?

Tuesday we went to the San Diego Zoo. Stuart and Kathy have a season pass for their family and since I was the first extended family member to go with them, I got to use the free guest pass (that was Kathy's tactic for getting visitors out there... a free pass to the zoo is great, but 3 cute kids is greatER!)

Usually, watching these kinds of monkeys is my favorite.

But this trip to the zoo, THESE monkeys were my favorite!

Here's a nice little "family" shot...
I just noticed that Spencer is holding on to the baby gorilla's head.

All 3 kiddos LOVED singing along with Mrs. B (or whoever she was). Summer (especially) wasn't shy in the least to get up there and get down with her bad Spendlove self. We're a family of entertainers... what can I say?

Stuart was able to meet up with us that night for the cool acrobatic show. This was the only real family picture we got (real meaning no monkeys included).

I had to leave Wednesday afternoon to get back to Mesa for a Thursday appointment. But before I left, we went down to their complex swimming pool (...that's "complex" as in "apartment complex"... it wasn't some type of intricate obstacle course type swimming pool!). A couple years ago, I flew out to Lubbock over Spring Break to give Summer swimming lessons but I haven't worked with Spencer yet. So, after coaxing Spencer into taking off his Spiderman "flotation device", we had some swim lessons. After doing a few basic skills in the water, I could tell the kid was fearless and eager to learn. I had him jump off the side to me and I noticed that he was naturally kicking and pulling with his arms in the water. So I kept having him jump and I would gradually step further and further away from him, until he was finally jumping in and swimming across the small length of the pool ALL BY HIMSELF! Granted, he wasn't coming up for a breath, so he got tuckered out pretty quick. But, hey, he's got some more confidence in the pool now. I hope that's ok with Stuart and Kathy... sometimes confidence + fearlessness = a parenting nightmare!

That afternoon, I easily returned home in 5 hours on the dot. What an easy drive! I'll have to make it more often. And even though I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my primary blood relative (Stu-Boo-Baby), I did get some priceless footage of him playing with my MacBook and being a kid again. (For those of you who don't know, Macs come with an application called "Photo Booth" that has tons of different effects like coloring, lenses, etc. Its super fun to play with!) It feels like Stuart has been a full-fledged grown-up forever, and, even though I love watching him be a successful husband and father, I really enjoy times where he lets loose and is just that goofy little fat kid that I grew up with. I leave you on that note, with some of my "priceless" footage!