GETTING USED TO THE NEW HOUSE

This last week feels as though it were more like three or four. We are at that interesting point in unpacking where all of the rooms are functional but not yet totally organized and we would never let anyone look in our closets. It’s hard to move past this point quickly because we can go about our daily business without unpacking anything else.

Instead of organizing our old things, we’ve bought new ones! Desperately needed new clothes, a futon for the guest bedroom/dining room (where Mom slept last night), new pillows for the couches, plastic shelving to store food, more sheets for our bed ect., ect. Becca came back from Wal-Mart yesterday and said, “This is the last new thing that we’re going to buy for the house for a while!”

This is an old place and we’ve already experienced our share of quirks. The waste from the garbage disposal came up through our shower drain twice, water flooded onto our kitchen floor from the pipes below, the light in our bedroom has gone out on us twice and one of the burners on our stove needed to be repaired. We have developed a good relationship with Clint the handy-man because he’s had to come by several times this week and will need to come by again to figure out why the light in our bedroom won’t turn on.

We’ve had a lovely time becoming reacquainted with old friends and are looking forward to seeing everyone else who haven’t said hi to yet. Our friends the Crane’s have been over twice and we’ve been over to our friends the Higbee’s house twice. My friend David Higbee is a state court interpreter and I’ll be shadowing him on Thursday while he does a case in Heber. His wife Evy took pity on me when she found out that Becca was going to be in Michigan and invited me over for dinner when the David and I finished up in Heber.

The internet and phones are up and working so feel free to call us. Also, we have our web camera and microphone installed as well so we’d love to talk to those of you who would like to purchase those items for your computer. It’ll be the best $30 you’ve ever spent.

Speaking of spending money, the highlighted words on this blog, as you see them using Microsoft Explorer, are the way that blogger.com makes money and are why I don’t have to pay anything to have a blog. I hope that they have not been too much of a nuisance. If you want to see my blog without the links that take you to advertisements, look at it in Mozila Firefox or Netscape or some browser other that MS Explorer.

Paella is a Spanish dish and is what Becca's making tonight

Becca is preparing a delicious meal for us tonight so I’ll take the liberty of writing a little bit more since she won’t be adding her two cents this week. Yesterday I helped two couples from church move out of the neighborhood and tomorrow I’ll be helping another family. I have felt so grateful that our friends came through for us when we moved in that I’ve wanted to help others as well. Although, I am getting pretty tired so it’s a good thing that the semester is starting soon and that no one else will be moving in.

At the end of the day yesterday Becca and I attended my friend Joy Nielsen’s wedding reception. The lovely couple was sealed in the Manti Temple, just like Becca and I. The reception was gorgeous and very classy. There was a musical number performed by Joy, Joy’s twin Sarah, her older sister Amy, her younger sister Tona and her new husband Andrew. After the musical number she and Andrew performed a waltz for our enjoyment. I guess guys named Andrew just like to waltz with their brides when they get married. Mom had spent the weekend with the Nielsens and came home with us after the reception. It was nice to take her to church with us.

Well, this post is long enough as it is. You’re all wonderful people and we’re glad that you’re in our lives. Love, the Ryan and Becca.

BACK IN PROVO

Hey everyone!

This week has been stressful and wonderful. Ryan and I moved into our new place. It is smaller than we remember …but bigger than our last place. It suits our needs. We have been moving in little by little. The bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and living room are pretty much all moved in. We still need to work on the office, dining room and closets. We have a nice sized front and back yard that we share with our neighbors upstairs which includes a decent sized garden, flower gardens and a couple’s porch swing. All of the curtains were left when we moved in. I’m glad we don’t have to buy ones to fit all the windows. I have put most of our pictures up. We are looking to purchase more pictures. I am looking forward to adding all the “home-sweet-home” touches to the place.

Our first day of church in a new building was wonderful. It is a very friendly group of Latter Day Saints. One of the sisters brought over a bunch of homegrown tomatoes since she found out we want to grow them to make salsa. We can’t wait to buy cilantro and onions to add to the yummyness.

My sister had her twin babies on Thursday!!!!! Maxwell Adam Tobey is 4lbs 14oz, and his younger by a minute brother, Benjamin Joseph Tobey was 4lbs 13.6oz. Both of them are healthy and doing very well. They are able to go home tomorrow!!! I’m so excited to see them!!!! I get to go to Michigan from August 30th – Sept 6th. I’m definitely going to take lots of pictures!! I hope Ryan won’t be too lonely here in Utah.

Well, that is the most interesting news of the week for me..OH..except, that when we moved in, Ryan so loving dealt with my panic of seeing an enormous brown jumping spider that was about the size of a quarter, and a centimeter high…in our kitchen sink!!!!! Yes I know there are much bigger spiders in the world, but none that I have seen in Utah. I got a spider killing product that claimed “Kills on contact”, and when I saw the second spider in the dining room behind the door, I must have sprayed half the can on the bugger. He wouldn’t die!!!! And he started to charge at me. Ryan stepped on him.

………….I want my money back….

Here is my sweet hubby!

Mom bought Becca an Emergency Chocolate jar

One more visit to the Boothe Homestead

Last week was bitter sweet for us as we said goodbye to our loving family in the Central Valley. Everyone was wonderful to us and I would just like to say thank-you to everyone for all of your kindness and generosity, especially to Mom and Grant, for opening up their house to us. We will always remember your kindness.

On a recent note, we’re very grateful to Emma and Deb for letting us stay at their house again. That trip from Modesto to Provo is a lot to do in one day and it’s nice to be able to stop somewhere to shave an hour off of the total drive. That may not seem like much, but it is to us.

Our move back was fairly easy. Three of our friends came to help us load and unload our things from storage onto the rented truck and then into our house, which was much easier than Walter and I doing almost all of it ourselves. We’ve only been here a little more than two days but I feel confident that things will look very nice for Mom when she gets here on Saturday. Over all Becca and I are very happy with our new place. Being basement dwellers isn’t all that bad.

Well we won’t have internet at home until the Comcast guy gets here on Thursday afternoon so Becca and I are going over to our friends’ the Higbees’ house so we can publish this post. We will be seeing some of you sooner than later but in the end we’re just happy that we will see you again. Love, the newlyweds!

TEMPLES AND MORE TEMPLES

What a week this has been! It’s been so great that we’re just going to have to split it up into several posts. We hope that the writing and pictures will merit your extra attention.

This Monday Mom, Grant, Becca and I went to the Sacramento Temple’s Open House and it was wonderful. It was very nice to meet one of Mom’s friends, Allen, and see our friends Lorna and Peter Schofield. I suppose if one is going to have a problem it should be that there are just too many loved ones and friends to visit with. Such is my case. It had been far too long since I had seen Lorna and her family.

The tour guides said that they expected over 150,000 people to tour the Sacramento Temple before it was officially dedicated and I believe them because there were hundreds of people there at the same time we were. However, the Church is small and we had the good fortune to bump into my good friend Andrew and his fiancée Karina, whom I had never met. Though I have only had a very short time to visit with her, I must say that I have nothing but the best impressions about her and Andrew. They were a very cute engaged couple.

The temple is esthetically beautiful, as you can see thanks to Becca’s wonderful photography, but what makes it special is its dedication to being a reverent place where Heavenly Father communes with His children. We members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are very fortunate to have so many temples all over the Earth where we can feel closer to the Lord.

I’ll let Becca put in her two cents:

It was a really wonderful experience to go through the temple. We had fun visiting with all of our friends and enjoying each others company. I was so excited to see Andrew and Karina! She is a really sweet girl. I can tell that they love each other a lot!

The next day, Becca got home from work, I ironed a white shirt and we went down south to Fresno to go to an operating temple. It had been a few months since I had been to an operating temple and I feel refreshed after the experience though I have to say that what made it especially memorable to me was seeing my Grandpa and Grandma Boothe working there as volunteers. They are wonderful examples for their posterity and Becca and I love them a lot.

Becca and I in front of the temple in Fresno

Not that we don’t love all of you. You’re on our mailing list for goodness sakes! My Lee cousins live close to the temple but, after much trial and travail, we could not find their house and no one answered the phone when we called. I’d like to go on record and say that the city planning in that neighborhood is more of a maze than a suburb.

All Latter- Day Saint temples are dedicated to God

Wednesday was a work day and I was able to get a bit of translating done, in addition to making my administrators list considerably longer. We had a kick back night and watched Madea’s Family Reunion again. Mom thought the movie was so funny that she bought it! Not a bad purchase. If Becca and I hadn’t bought so many movies over the summer already, we’d buy it too.

Let's hear from the Lovely Becca again:

It was really nice seeing the grandparents again! I always enjoy seeing family members dressed in white in the temple. There is a loving peace that surrounds experiences like that. We were so excited to see the Lee family! We had our Map Quest directions from the temple to their house; They made no sense from the very first direction. We had to go by luck to find the house, and then the house number was nowhere to be found!! So we changed one digit (the logical one to change, because none of the houses had it as a 2^nd number), found the house, and Ryan didn’t remember it. No one answered the phone, so we made our way back home. It was quite the adventure!

ROLLER COASTERS, TIGERS AND AN ORCA

Thursday Dad and Penny took all of us out to Six Flags Marine World. It was a lot of fun. Penny, Becca, Breanna and I started off as the daredevils, leaving the other three behind to go on the slower rides, however, there was one particular ride the banged my head around so much and made me so dizzy that I needed to take a big break.

Although the whole day was fun there were three particular high lights for me: riding on the Sky Coaster (I’ll let Becca explain that one), riding on an elephant and watching Dad get drenched.

There was a bit of irony in Dad getting drenched that made it so delicious. Seeing Dad get wet in general is not very funny due to the fact that he has a pool but under the right circumstances it can be quite entertaining. We had to split up into two groups for a water rafting ride so Dad, Grant and I went in one raft while the girls went in another. Dad gave me that wryly look that many of you are familiar with and said something to the effect of, “You know the water comes in that side of the boat. You’re going to get soaked.” Not five seconds after he said that, the raft changed positions and Dad was in my spot. This resulted in him getting a little wet, which was only he-hah funny but looking down our course a ways, I could see that I was in line to go right under a waterfall. As if turned by mischievous water park imps, our raft turned again and Dad went right under it! I’m chuckling even now as I write this post.

We found that there are big squirt guns on the side of the water rides that people can use for twenty-five cents. Dad was able to turn the tables and drenched quite a few strangers and even Penny, Becca, Breanna and Tristine. Revenge is sweet!

I don’t know why the elephant ride was so much fun for me but it was. I suppose it was just the novelty of being able to say that I rode on top of an 8,800 lbs. animal. Becca was a good sport and rode with me even though she’d all ready done it once before years ago.

My sweet Becca can tell you about how she, Grant and I fell from 80 feet in the air:

Well, I had been on a 180 foot Sky Coaster before while at a theme park in Canada, and loved it!! I really wanted Ryan to experience it. Grant was excited to try it out and asked to go up before Breanna, so she was really disappointed not to go up. It is that ride you see that looks like a giant swing where people strap themselves into harnesses and get pulled up into the air by a cord, and then fly like superman.

The last time I wasn’t the one who pulled the rip cord (what sets you loose upon pulling)…so this time I was going to!! Once you are up as high as you can go, you hear a voice on the speaker say 1-2-3 FLY!!! That is the cue to pull the rip cord and free fall for at least 2 seconds until you get caught by what you are harnessed in. It was sooooooooooooooo much fun!!!!!! Ryan, Grant and I were all smiles afterward. Next time I will have to go with Breanna!!!

EIGHT WEDDINGS IN A YEAR IN A HALF

Just a few quick comments about Friday: not to toot my own horn, but I made a delicious taco dinner. It was the first time that I made a meal that everyone enjoyed thoroughly. Everything was enjoyed; the meat mix for the tacos, the salsa, the cucumbers in a vinaigrette (thanks G & G Boothe) and the guacamole. They were all my own concoctions except for Grandma Boothe’s vinaigrette. Lastly, I hit my goal of 3,000 emails on Friday. Whoopie!

Meeting Karina on Monday was that much better because she and Andrew got married the following Saturday. It was a beautiful wedding in the Bay Area. As you can see, they are a lovely couple. Lots of people were there to show their love and support and that’s always nice to see. Becca and I got to hang out with our friends Doug and Sarah Ludlow and that made the time pass faster during the picture taking.

One particularly classy thing that happened was that, instead of the father and the bride having the first dance at the wedding reception, as is often the case, Andrew and Karina waltzed to everyone’s enjoyment. Classy! I’ll let my wonderful Becca finish things up. Happy Birthday to Grandma Leota, Merrilyn and Deb. We hope to see you all on Monday.

Six couples: the Ludlows, the newest Farthings and the Boothes

The reception was beautiful! Her colors were a deep green, soft white and silver. All of it was very elegant. Instead of the traditional American bouquet throwing, she did a Peruvian version: All the single girls had to pull a ribbon out from the cake. The ribbon that had the ring attached was the symbolic part (like catching the bouquet). All the ribbons were pulled but the one that had the ring, so Andrews sister Vicky quickly grabbed it. It was fun to watch. The whole day was fantastic! I hope that they will enjoy the pictures that I took.

Friends since 5th grade: me, Andrew and Doug

Well, we love all of you and hope that you are doing well. Ryan and I are going home to Utah on Wednesday or Thursday. It was wonderful being here for the summer.
Love, Ryan & Becca

FROM CASTRO TO KITTY CATS

Some people already are speculating that the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, is not ill but dead. Wouldn't that make our government happy? From what I can tell, that old man is a big hypocrite. He lead a revolution to overthrow the current dictator and make all people equal with his soviet-like communism and then set himself up in mansions, living like a king, while his people live in poverty. How is that equality? We need less of those guys in this world. Hopefully the next Cuban leader will be a little more sincere and moderate.

Last Monday Becca and I had the delightful opportunity to visit what I now affectionately refer to as the Boothe Family Homestead. I scanned about 77 old family pictures like the ones you see displayed here on the blog, had avocado sandwiches and played card games. For the past year I’ve been wanting to find out more about where my family comes from and this summer I’ve made a special point to ask my grandparents questions. I found out that I have ancestors who were forced out of Nauvoo and had cannons shot at them while they were leaving and that I have Italian and Native American roots. It was a fun visit.

Three generations of Boothe men: my dad, me and Granpa Boothe

Left to right: Aunt Laurey, my mom, Aunt Carrie and Uncle Eric

The schools are awakening, slowly. I’ve been looking for schools to contact and now my list has grown from just under 2,000 to over 2,800. My goal was to get to 3,000 before I went back to Utah and I think I’ll do it this week. I’m going to enjoy converting one of the rooms in our new basement apartment to be my home office. Translating in my bedroom is only slightly better than translating in my living room.

Grant was gone at his high adventure camp, so I swiped the Angels and Demons book that he was reading. I had tried to read it when he was playing video games before but he squawked, protesting that Dad had bought it for him and him alone. I argued with him a bit, trying to explain that Dad had bought it as a family book for anyone to read but Grant just got angrier. As the discussion became more intense, I considered calling Dad right there on the spot but then my more reasonable self pointed out that I was 25 years-old and that calling my father to settle a dispute between my younger brother and me might be just a little juvenile. So I did the mature thing: dropped the issue, read it while he was out camping and then when he got back rubbed it in his face that I had finished the book before he had.

We had so much fun watching Madea’s Family Reunion last week that we watched Diary of a Mad Black Woman this weekend. The later movie was made first and it was the first time the director/actor of three different roles/screen writer had made a movie. The two films are adaptations of his successful plays which turned him from rags to riches. In any case, Diary of a Mad Black Woman is cheesy and funny and although it has a very Christian message of family and forgiveness it is over the top and reduces some of its characters to being mere caricatures. As far as I’m concerned, you can skip it. Madea’s Family Reunion is cheesy, has a good Christian message but the film’s creator (that’s a better way to put it) learned from his first mistakes and made a much better movie. I really recommend it.

Here is my sweet Becca!

Madea’s Family Reunion was indeed a really funny film! Work has been slowing down. The heat wave wasn’t a good time for people to come and get a massage, and now that school is nearing, people are coming less. That is ok by me though…I wore myself out during the fast time, and get a break during the slow time.

Grandma and Grandpa Boothe brought over a cat on Saturday. She is really sweet and affectionate. We got her a collar with a tag that has our address and phone number (we didn’t put a name on it, because we cannot decide on one). We want her to go potty outside which is why we bought the collar… soooo if she gets lost while she is outside exploring someone will call us. When we let her out she would just hang around the yard, but this morning we didn’t let her in when she meowed (it was 7 am, and she was only out for an hour), and now we haven’t seen her for over 3 hours. We hope that she is just exploring the neighborhood, and not trying to find grandma and grandpa’s house. We put food out for her. She really likes us. She slept with Ryan and me and just purred away. She comes to you when you put your hand down. I’m sure she will come back; I just hope it is before church so she won’t come back while we are gone for 3 hours. Anyway, we miss her.

We can’t decide on a name for her and politely ask you to suggest names for us to consider. Just click on the word comments below and leave your suggestion. We look forward to reading input on names.

Well, I’m going to go take a walk around the block to see if she isn’t just lounging in a patch of sunshine somewhere.

Love Ryan and Becca