Morton Salt Had It Right!

So the Morton Salt slogan is "When it rains, it pours[.]" and that is exactly what we have had to live through for the past few weeks.

If you don't know already, Iowa has experienced some extreme flooding and Sterling and I have been able to enjoy it firsthand. On June 13th Sterling and I evacuated our apartment and literally headed for higher ground.

The Iowa River (one block east of our apartment complex) and Clear Creek (one block south of our apartment complex) were both rising quickly causing a little anxiety for Sterling. I, on the other hand, remained calm and tried to ease his anxieties by attempting to convince him that it was not going to affect us and if it did we shouldn't worry because none of our possessions were all that precious. My efforts were in vain because Sterling knew that there was a reason to worry and I was living in denial.

As the flooding continued it was apparent that our apartment and our belongings were in danger. When Sterling came home from work that day our street was almost completely filled with water and as far as we could tell the city would be denying access to our street sooner than later. At about 7:30 pm we went outside to check on the flooding and decided that it would be wise if we moved our car to an apartment complex behind us which is set on a hill. Within minutes of our decision to move the car to a safe location our road was closed.

This would make it difficult (but not impossible) to evacuate if needed. We went back into the apartment and immediately started packing our belongings and discussing what we would save if it came to an immediate evacuation. We moved everything to the counter tops or to the highest shelf possible in each of the rooms. Sterling was making telephone calls to people in the ward in order to find help with moving our couches and beds which were not going to fit on the counter top. By the time Sterling had made arrangements to move our larger pieces of furniture the drizzling rain had turned into torrential downpour and all of his efforts had been foiled. We would have to wait until the morning to move.

It is amazing how quickly we packed up our home. We started packing at 8:30 pm and by 12:30 am we were finished. Please note that at least one half hour was designated to Sterling trying to console me during my breakdown when the reality of the situation set in. It turns out that I am a little more attached to our belongings than I thought. I was trying to save so many things that I am sure Sterling considered ridiculous but he never complained or laughed at me and I am grateful for that.

The next morning the moving crew (Steve Courtright and Ben Robbins) arrived at 8:30 and the evacuation began. We had carry everything to a parking lot behind our complex. It made moving less pleasurable than most moving experiences (which aren't fun to begin with) but well worth it. At first we were just going to move our couches and beds but in the end we moved almost everything we own. All of it isn't worth much monetarily but the memories associated with our belongings are priceless.

Since the evacuation we have moved three different times. In fact our friend Ben saw us moving the other day and said, "Hurry grab the next available apartment before the music stops." Musical apartments is not as fun as it sounds. It consists of living out of a suitcase, carrying all of your dirty laundry in the one laundry basket you decided to bring along, transporting your "necessary" foods from refrigerator to refrigerator, doing laundry whenever the five outfits you packed are soiled and sleeping on the couch or the floor depending on whether or not the both of you are home at the same time.

All in all our experience seems like a vacation gone horribly wrong. We get the pleasure of living out of suitcases but we still have to go to work.

Starting a Family

This past weekend Sterling and I did some redecorating. One of our generous neighbors was doing some down-sizing and put some shelving and a small cabinet out by the garbage. On my way to get Sterling from work I noticed the cute little cabinet and decided that we could use some more furniture to make our home look more like a home and less like a mere living space.

The shelving is a corner shelf and provides a delightful place to display our wedding album. The cabinet serves as a bookshelf and storage for our past Ensign and Liahona magazines. The color scheme of the new furniture (red and purple) doesn't exactly match the brown couches, carpet and coffee table that we have in the living room but it adds a nice little touch to our mundane life.

So now that our apartment looks more like a home we have decided that it is time for us to put our parenting skills to the test. We have saved up and we are ready for the challenge. We have decided on the name Jade.

Now don't get your hopes up. The addition to our family is a plant. We still aren't prepared for a real family and we don't want animals so we decided that the best way to test our abilities as nurturers, parents and providers was to buy a plant. We decided on the name Jade because that is the type of plant that we bought.

We are already struggling to take care of our plant. In fact Sterling called mom to ask for suggestions and I spoke to Jaycia three different times to find out how to tell if a plant is an indoor or outdoor plant, what we need to do in order to replant our little baby and how often do we feed it. Hopefully when we finally decide to have children it won't be this difficult.

Like most proud parents, we will post pictures soon.

Sweet Memories

Earlier this month Sterling and I were able to attend the sealing of one of my very best friends. We were privileged to travel to Nauvoo and witness the eternal union of Gina Valenti and Mat Brox.

Gina was one of my college roommates. It is both interesting and entertaining to look back on my time spent in Arizona and reminisce about the good and bad experiences with which I was blessed. I owe a great deal of thanks to those with whom I lived for their influence during those years.

Imagine six girls, all from different backgrounds, most of them only briefly acquainted with each other and managing to live together under one roof. Gina came to live with us when one of our roommates finished her final semester of school. I still remember the day that Gina came to look at the house and see if it was going to be a good fit for her.

Shyla, Erin and I were sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast while Kristen showed her the house. When Gina left we each took turns stating the reasons why we thought Gina would fit in with us and then stating our concerns. I don't think we could have imagined what great friends we would become and how perfect she was for all of us at that time.

All of that was about five years ago. Since then we have all moved out of the house, most of us are married and very few of us still live in Arizona. Although we are separated by many miles and we have not lived together for many years, the memories made at 1237 W. Hermosa Drive still live on.

I am as grateful to Gina for the memories that were made during our time together in Arizona as I am for the sweet memory of her sealing. It is such a blessing to see how the strengths and weaknesses of each of the six girls has blessed our lives in a variety of ways. Though we are not bound together by the walls we call home we will forever be bound together by the memories made within the walls of that home.

So to Josie, Shyla, Erin, Jordan and Gina I want to say thank you for your love, support, friendship and especially for the sweet memories.

Bella Pella

Due to the insufficient insertion of phone into pocket Sterling was without a phone Sunday night. Monday morning we called some friends to find out if it was in their car because Sterling had already checked everywhere for it.

Luckily it was safe in the front seat of their car and they said we could come and get it at any time during the day. The wife would be home all day and all night so whenever we showed up she would be there. Initially I thought of how convenient this was for us because Sterling had to be at the hospital Monday morning so that he could sit in on a cochlear implant surgery. However the more I thought about it I started to feel badly for her.

NOTE: In order to prevent confusion I will let you know that this post is not about Sterling's phone but is in fact about me. I have to tell the story of the phone so that I can talk about my thoughts which will then lead us to the actual reason for this post.

On with the story. After the thoughts of gratitude for her being home all day I started to worry about what it would be like to be a stay-at-home mom. I began to convince myself that having children was more of a restriction than a blessing and so I voiced my thoughts to Sterling. I told him that I couldn't imagine sitting in our house all day with our children and doing nothing else. I told him that I was pretty sure that I would need to work or occupy my time with something other than our children all day every day. I then started asking a bunch of rhetorical questions regarding staying at home and though they were rhetorical Sterling answered almost every single one of them.

The answer that leads to why I am posting today was, "Well Cylynn, why do you think so many of the people in the ward have so many posts on their blog? It's because they stay home all day and have a lot of time. Just think of how our blog would be if you stayed home all day. You could post all the time."

I replied, "I don't want to post all the time. Honey why do you think we have very few posts on our blog? It's because one post is enough to make me not want to write for at least a few weeks. If I stayed home all day our blog would look the same, as it does now."

So long story longer, I am writing today as a result of the above stated events. I want all of you to be updated on the fun and exciting things happening in our lives. Unfortunately the most exciting things at this time is our trip to Pella and our boring conversations that lead me to making boring posts. But I decided that if I don't take the time now to post the final picture collage from Pella then I might not get around to it ever.

So now a brief description of the post. The title of this post, though incorrect, means beautiful Pella.

The festival was fun and the flowers were absolutely beautiful. I have selected a few pictures of floats from the parades, pictures of tulips and the enormous windmill to share with all of you. Although you cannot comprehend nor imagine how beautiful it really was by simply viewing my amateur photographs, I hope you enjoy it just the same.

Stay tuned for more uneventful updates on our life in Iowa.

Tulip Festival or Two-Lip Festival...

that is the question. I didn't think I needed to explain what kind of festival it was, after all I did tell him that tulips are my favorite "flower." Let me explain where the confusion started. I will need to back up to our arrival at the bed and breakfast but I think that is the best place to start.

We arrived at the bed and breakfast at the precise hour that we indicated when making the reservation. We had made some pretty strict plans as to when we wanted to be to the festival on Friday since we wouldn't be there all day Saturday and many of the evening events were re-runs, if you will. This would make it possible for us to see everything we had in mind if we kept to our schedule. For example there was a lighted parade both nights, there was a tractor rodeo both nights, there was an opera both nights and well I think you get the idea.

In order to arrive home at a decent hour on Saturday we needed to catch the tractor rodeo, opera and lighted parade on Friday night thus our on-time arrival at the bed and breakfast was critical (at least in my mind). So up to this point we are on schedule and so I invite you to come along and enjoy the festival through my eyes.

Event #1: The Opera/Musical

At 6:20 pm Sterling and I arrived at the Pella Opera House for Shakespeare's forgotten musical! A rollicking musical based very loosely on the 1956 sci-fi film Forbidden Planet, itself a take off on William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Presented by the Central College Theatre and Music Departments which, I am sad to say, was very hard to tell whether or not some of actors/actresses participated in either theatre or music. That said, it was both fun and funny. They sang a variety of songs that Sterling and I have been singing for days now. Sadly my musical talent is no better but my delivery is phenomenal.

After the musical we meandered the streets of Pella looking in shops, checked out the goodies that we might want to buy from the bakery, ogled the delicious food that we would taste on the morrow, marked our territory for the parade (Note: our territory marking was not done in the same fashion as a dog marks his territory. Instead we simply made a mental note as to where we might like to sit) and finally we settled for a cup of hot chocolate because my attire was insufficient protection from the bitter weather that evening.

Event #2: The Parade

I would like to say that we sipped our cocoa all the way to our parade post but I think it is honest to say that I chugged that baby! Details, details.

Our parade post consisted of a tree that we could lean up against while we waited for the parade to start. It didn't seem too crowded around our post so we thought we had done well for ourselves, you know being first time Pella Lighted Parade attendees, but we soon found out that we actually picked the last street where the parade would tour. Not only was it the last street but it was in a location where you couldn't hear the emcee as he explained each of the floats. Our parade post was bad for the following reasons.

1. I guzzled my hot chocolate in a few seconds and that was about 20-30 minutes before the parade would begin.
2. Did I mention that my clothing was not suitable for 30 0r 40 degree weather ?
3. Does anyone know how long it takes for a parade to reach the last street when the floats and marching bands are going about 1 mph!
4. Our blanket that we take on trips for emergencies happened to be in the car, not at the emergency aka MY COLD BODY!
5. Sterling got himself into quite the predicament.

The fifth reason may not seem to relate the the other four, but you will see why it made the list. Stand with me on the curb as the floats pass and you will understand.

Do you see all of the creative floats? "Ooh, that one is neat." "I like that one." "Interesting." Oh honey, look those ladies are giving out tulips."

Event #3: The Tulip for Two-Lips

The girl and I make eye contact and she approaches us. Here is the conversation that takes place.

Girl: Would you like to buy a tulip?

Sterling: How much does it cost?

Girl: A kiss on the cheek.

Sterling: Really?

Girl: Yep.

Sterling: ... ... ...

He said nothing. I think it caught him off guard and since she was already standing at the curb waiting for her "curbside service" he kissed her on the cheek. As a direct result, I was the proud recipient of a yellow tulip.

One weekend out on the town and Sterling is kissing girls. Good thing I was with him to explain that it was a Tulip festival not a Two-Lip festival or he may have gone crazy giving out kisses for free!