Lego City

Being raised with 7 brothers, I got introduced to Legos pretty early. I love Legos. One of my favorites is from the Lego Creator theme. Modular buildings were first introduced in 2007 and consist of buildings that can be connected to form a town. There are seven buildings so far and I have all of them. I got the newest one (Town Hall) a few weeks ago and decided it was time to build all of them. This has been Elsie's favorite thing. Since building Town Hall she has asked me when I would finish all of them. Tonight I finally did. So, without further ado, here they are...

Town Hall and Cafe Corner

(l-r) Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, Fire Brigade, and Grand Emporium

Market Street and right backside

left backside

Grand Emporium and Pet Shop

Bird's eye view from the front

Bird's eye view from the back

I'll take them all apart to be rebuilt when the next one comes out. Not a cheap hobby but one I enjoy.

Moving...but not far

If you haven't already heard, I'm in the process of moving. Not far, just to Camp Verde with Josh and Andrea. I'm actually looking forward to it as it is a good break from having six teenage girls living with me.

Down side of moving? Packing. I hate it. I hate trying to figure out what I need and what I don't. I hate cleaning. If I could have someone do it for me, for free of course, I would. Upside, it does force me to downsize. My coworkers are reaping the rewards of my move. I've given away books, games, movies, and a few LEGO sets. Okay, a lot of LEGO sets. But I know they are all going to a new home where they will be loved.

And now back to packing...

Providing Entertainment

So my sister's wedding is coming up in three weeks. When she first set a date, I jokingly said that I would do a dance from the lu'au (their theme is Polynesian-esque). She jokingly agreed. Well, now it's no longer a joke. I, my younger sister, and two of my sisters-in-law will perform "California" at the reception. Here's the performance from the lu'au. Hopefully the number is just as good at the reception!

ALOHA!!

So on June 12th, our ward had our second annual lu'au. I wasn't originally planning on being in it, unlike last year when I planned on performing. But I got a call the week before the lu'au asking if I could do the same dance I did last year. I said sure, then learned a new dance at the rehearsal for the one I knew. So, here's some picks courtesy of my family, I was going to record it but I forgot my camera in my rush to get to the church on time. (No I wasn't getting married in the morning...)
This is the dance I learned in five minutes, good thing it was pretty easy. In this one, the song states that "I'm going to California, and when I come back we will be married." You can kind of see the Ring Pops we used as engagement rings.

The things we brought back were a pair of high heeled shoes (I wish you could really see the four inch heels I wore), a hat with a crooked brim, a shawl with the fringes, and a short petticoat.

The young men and elders did the Haka, which is usually done shirtless, but we'll make an exception this time.
Pretty fierce faces!!

The other dance I did was Kanaka Wai Wai (pronounced Vai Vai). This is the one that I already knew I just had to practice it a few times.
Although it doesn't look like it, I did have a great time. Unlike last year, our ward was responsible for a good portion of the entertainment. Thank you Adriane and the Guys for teaching us all to dance.

Cub Scout Day Camp

I've been helping out at day camp for our local council the last couple of days with the last day tomorrow. The first comment I received from my brothers is "Isn't it a 'day camp'? Why is it taking three days?" My answer to that is I don't know. There are a lot of things that the organizers wanted to pass off. I was put in charge of the crafts. Originally, I was only supposed to do two days of crafts but one of our teachers couldn't get the time off work, add I got another day of crafts. I found this out Wednesday night and had a short time to figure out what to do. We had decided that the theme of crafts would be Native American, so I came up with tipis for the Tigers, Wolfs, and Bears, and sandpaintings for the Weblos. Today we decided to make rain sticks out of PVC pipe and screws. Trying to talk over little kids and keep them on point is not an easy task. Needless to say, I've come home the last two days with a killer headache, a mixture of the noise and possible dehydration. Tomorrow should be relatively quieter, all they're doing is finishing with the decorations on their sticks. We shall see how it goes...

The first one...

So, I'm pretty new to this blogging thing and I don't know how often I will be able/take time to post but here goes.

After graduating high school (mumbled) years ago, I never thought I would return to the Verde Valley, hence the title. I moved back here five years ago and have worked at the same job the whole time, a first for me. I work at, to quote Dr. Phil, "the premiere all-girls boarding school" aka Copper Canyon Academy. It's crazy that I've been here thins long but I have a pretty sweet housing deal and I usually enjoy my job. I'm still single, so if you know any single LDS guys between 30-35, send them my way...only slightly kidding.

All in all, this should be an interesting experience. Stay tuned...