Tell You [a] Little Story

Just a sample of good things to come!

In anticipation of my travel plans and temple goals for the year, I've been thinking a lot about my list of temples visited. I can't match the pace of new temples being added all around the world, but I feel pretty good if I can go to one or two new-to-me ones each year. This year I hope to add San Jose Costa Rica and Monticello Utah. For my own OCD purposes, here is my updated list: St. George Utah Logan Utah Manti Utah Salt Lake Cardston Alberta Mesa Arizona Los Angeles California Oakland California Ogden Utah Provo Utah Jordan River Utah Boise Idaho Denver Colorado Portland Oregon Las Vegas Nevada San Diego California Bountiful Utah Mount Timpanogos Utah Vernal Utah Albuquerque New Mexico Snowflake Arizona Redlands California Manhattan New York Newport Beach California Rexburg Idaho Draper Utah Oquirrh Mountain Utah Reno Nevada Columbia River Washington Nauvoo Illinois Brigham City UT

I ought to acknowledge that today is my  darling sister's  birthday. It has been a joy to have her and her family so close. They are some of our favorite people in the world, and we are hopeful that soon they will live even closer.   Also, 15 years ago my life changed forever when this cute boy who was my very best friend picked me up from studying at the library and took me up Hobble Creek for a late night hike, whereat we promptly sat down next to the creek and preceded to broach the huge elephant in the everything that was the tension (the good kind) building between us and how we were falling for each other. He admitted that he didn't want to lose me, I admitted that I'd loved him since August 10, 1992, he said he wanted to marry me, I swooned, I Love Yous were exchanged, and finally, a first kiss. That was a pretty good night. Happy birthday, Abby! Happy engagement day, Steve!

It's blurry, but it's a gem.  Steve found this photo of his young teenaged self from a friend online, and I couldn't resist posting it here. What a doll he is and was.

Do you know what I hear a lot that makes me want to scream? "Everything happens for a reason." When someone says that, it is usually the most ridiculously wrong time to assert my belief that, "Nah, they don't. Maybe some things, but not everything." The sayer has likely experienced a setback or tragedy or difficult time and is trying to find solace through her faith that God is the master puppeteer, orchestrating our daily interactions, choices and consequences of every little thing that goes down on this here planet.  When I hear an LDS person say that, I get especially frustrated. Doesn't that idea fly in the face of our doctrine? Have we been paying attention during General Conference, or haven't we? Sure. God can and perhaps very frequently does intervene on our behalf. The power of prayer is real and miracles happen all the time. There are always opportunities for growth and learning and exercising of faith when bad things happen, but does ...

Sometimes the life of a hermit or recluse is really, really appealing to me. If I could do that, I would become a good reader and read everything. I used to be a great reader but I'm not anymore and it's one of the disappointments of my adulthood. Steve and I are in a book club with good friends through his work. Attorneys and homemakers all, similar ages and interests, and stations in life. Plus a professorial couple thrown in for a little academic clout. We have hordes of children between us, all around the same age, same elementary and middle schools. They are good people. Because I like lists, this is what we are reading this year: The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball Increase In Learning by David Bednar Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson The Mormon Image In The American Mind by J.B. Haws The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Baub...

I wanted to recap 2011 with facebook status updates, but facebook thinks it's smarter than me and only shows me ones it thinks are important. Facebook is sort of lame that way. My memory is the worst thing I have, so if something isn't written down, it didn't happen. Also, I hate writing down stuff. Here are a few things I remember, in two minutes or less: drove to San Francisco with the family drove to Oregon Coast with Steve's family van engine died en route home from Oregon new car! that we weren't financially prepared to buy! but we made it work anyway! controversy with the cousins Isaac got baptized Elliot got the Priesthood Norah and preschool = good idea Calvin sailed down Apple Ave. on a rolling football and didn't die Aaron made duct tape creations continued to love  this didn't blog especially didn't twitter chose to not care about pinterest tried to learn some Chinese started a book club Two minutes are up. Maybe I'...

Luna the rat is dead. Cause of death: starvation/dehydration. Isn't that awful? It's awful. We didn't feed her. More accurately, the kids didn't feed her and no one reminded them to feed her. The dream around these parts is that at some point my kids won't need constant reminders (nagging) to do responsible things. Does that just magically happen at some point? Our oldest is showing signs of turning that corner. He wakes up on his own in the dark, cold basement and starts getting ready for school while I yet slumber. That's a biggie. But by and large, if I don't remind/ask/nag/tell, bad things happen: kids go to school with bad breath, school reports get turned in late if at all, Grandma's piano teaching efforts are in vain, rats die. Steve is firmly in the low intervention parenting camp that advocates Lighten Up What's the Worst That Can Happen So They Spent Three Hours on the Computer Big Deal. He does step in to assist with homework because...

This was part of a post on Provo's mayor's blog advertising a community health fair. Can you spot the irony?

Go where you're invited. Steve doesn't believe in this life philosophy, so I've become lax, but I think it's a good rule. This last Saturday I was invited to two events, each of which I did not have much interest in attending, so I didn't go to either. On Sunday I learned that both hosts had had low attendance and felt bad about it and it made me feel horrible. When I was about 8 my mom had a Tupperware party and no one came and she was hurt; even though it was a dumb Tupperware party, she took it personally. So even when I get invited to dumb jewelry parties,  I think it's a good idea to make an effort to show up because people are more important than me not being slightly inconvenienced.  Pay attention to the things you think about while falling asleep/when you wake up for whatever reason/first thing in the morning.  Your (my) brain has usually had a chance to filter out the unimportant stuff and whatever is left often provides clarity and new perspective. T...

I was 21 before I owned a car (although I'd crashed a couple already - sorry, dad). A Chrysler Cirrus and Stephen came as a package deal. One was rather lemony, the other, pure brilliance. He called her Cheryl, she had big child-bearing hips, er, a wide back end, and she broke down on the 14 on our way down to Arizona to get married. We got towed to Cedar City where we stayed with strangers and I sent Steve off to the mechanic's with the admonition to "be assertive," presumably to get them to hurry up on our repairs so we could get to the altar on time. It ticked him off. Though she was our first car and we were grateful to have her, nary a tear was shed when we very cheaply traded her in for bigger and better things, I think 5 years later. Cheryl was red. Steve's grandparents died while we were in Tucson for law school. We inherited their ten year old, massively rusted out Chevy Lumina, Euro edition. Did I mention the rust? It was rusty. It had sat in a snowy C...

We rode a cable car to church. Steve and I are pretty bad at photographing and documenting our collective life. Well, I take that back: he keeps a fairly faithful journal, so I'm pretty bad at it. We're both bad at taking pictures and his stress level rises whenever I suggest he should be good at that, because who has time to take on one more hobby? Point is, though, we have a good life together. We love each other. Our kids are pretty cute and, in spite of all their wild monkeyness, they're good kids and good people. We spent all of last week in San Francisco, which is such a magical city. I mean, it totally looks like a magical, fairy tale city when you come in across the Bay Bridge, with its hilly, tree-y skyline. People there are really good at parallel parking and they have charming neighborhoods, awesome food, and everyone is nice, even though there are cheap souvenirs and double-decker tour buses every which way. I probably wouldn't be very nice if I lived...

My cute sister put this together of all the grandkids wishing Papa a happy birthday. Yup, 64. But our dad is cooler than Paul McCartney. Untitled from Abby Sharp on Vimeo .

My handsome and brilliant husband has started a blog , yo.

I love to travel. I crave change and newness and trying new things. I believe LDS temples are among the holiest of places on this earth. I enjoy setting concrete goals that I can work toward systematically or incrementally. For these reasons, I want to visit all the operating temples on the planet. There are 134 currently in operation. Here are the ones I've been inside. St. George Utah Logan Utah Manti Utah Salt Lake Cardston Alberta Mesa Arizona Los Angeles California Oakland California Ogden Utah Provo Utah Jordan River Utah Boise Idaho Denver Colorado Portland Oregon Las Vegas Nevada San Diego California Bountiful Utah Mount Timpanogos Utah Vernal Utah Albuquerque New Mexico Snowflake Arizona Redlands California Manhattan New York Newport Beach California Rexburg Idaho Draper Utah Oquirrh Mountain Utah While I don't count these toward my goal, I also find this list interesting. It is temples I have seen in person and/or traveled to the city ...

Christian Nielson , a man who knows a thing or two about being recognized, recognizes Aaron on the slopes. Thanks for the video, Christian!

Steve tells me I need to blog again so as to push down my pathetic post from weeks ago. So this is what I'm here to say: Norah named her plastic horse "Rahita Rahita Climb Down Your Hair". It's the best horse's name of all time, if you ask me.

Today I was mean and grumpy and irritable and fed-up (when I wasn't being long-suffering, encouraging, patient, and attentive, because let's be honest, there was some of that, too) and I kept thinking about what Diana used to say all the time to her sister Eliza when they were growing up: "I love you, but I don't like you." Mostly directed (but not spoken aloud) to my kids. Here's hoping for a new week filled with liking my cheerful, non-teething, obedient, loving, neat and responsible children!

I'm just now rolling over the 401(k) from Steve's last job to our current retirement plan. We paid tithing on the money we contributed, but obviously not on the money contributed by the firm or any interest that accrued. The same is true for the current retirement plan: tithing paid on money we put in, but not on matching funds or interest. So now that we're combining the plans, it just seems like it's getting super complicated. When we're retired and withdrawing this money, how will we pay tithing? Should I:  keep track of the dollar amount that we've paid tithing on already....all the way until we're 65 and living on this money? (Where will I keep this information that I will be sure to find it in 30 years??) Then I could write one big tithing check on interest and matching funds, and then an annual check on additional interest. just give up on trying to keep track, switch tithing to net instead of gross, and pay tithing on everything when we pull i...