Ok, my list of five things about me was fairly boring and you probably knew some of them so here’s a deep dark secret that popped into my head this morning; when I was 14 I was signed on at a modeling agency.
I have to go back a bit to really explain this one. I am from a very creative, artistic family. Everyone had their own talents. My mom is an amazing decorator and quilter and can create just about anything with her hands that you can think of. My dad has picked up photography and even guest lectures at BYU on different developmental processes, he’s really talented with stained glass, and he can figure out how to build anything only he always does the highest quality work with his own finishing touches like he decides to build a pond in the backyard, but of course it has to have a waterfall made from sandstone that he quarried himself or he decides to build a shed but of course it needs stained glass windows and a copula and it ends up being so beautiful my mom won’t use it to stash dirty yard tools in it. Then there’s my older sister Candice, genius photographer, famous scrapbooker, and did you know that she used to be very into acting? She was in several plays in high school and college and she did a theater study abroad in London. Oh, and did I mention that she has an amazing singing voice? She was on one of Janice Kapp Perry’s CD’s when she was little and she was always chosen as the soloist in just about everything that you can think of, weddings, choir concerts, plays, you name it. My little brother Eli is the athlete of the family, but don’t think the creative gene skipped him. He’s a drummer and he had his own band through junior high and high school. And let’s not forget my little sister, Marissa. I would say that her creativity lies in her day to day activities. You are NEVER bored around Marissa and she easily talks the people around her into doing the craziest things and they never regret it because they have a blast. Like when Marissa convinced her roommate to dress up for their picture in the ward directory to make it look like a mug shot, huge ratted hair, fake black-eye, and cardboard sign with their number that they each held in front of them and all. Or when they got tickets to the monster truck rally and all dressed up like white trash and spent the evening hooting and hollering. Or a two night before she left on her mission when her girlfriends were spending the night and they had nothing to do so they decided around 1 a.m. to throw an unbirthday party and they went to Walmart to buy cupcake supplies and they each had two dollars to by a birthday gift for someone else in the group, then they went home and made crazy paper hats and partied. You never ever quite know what you’ll be doing when you hang out with Riss. Knowing that she’s so spunky, it’s probably not a surprise that she’s never been shy and when she was younger she really wanted to be an actress. She was in a lot of children’s plays and after a lot of begging and pleading, she convinced my mom to take her to an open call for a very reputable modeling agency (her best friend was represented by them and make a killing just by riding a bike in an Evian water commercial). At the time we lived in Hawaii so the open call meant a trip to the other side of the island and I went along with my mom and sister because I wanted to go to Costco afterwards with my mom. We waited in a big room with all the other kids and one by one they were called out to another room where they were turned down and sent home. We were the last ones left and figured Marissa would meet the same fate (although she was adorable) but instead the agent walked in with contracts in hand for both of us. I was totally surprised. Candice and Marissa were the actresses in the family; I almost had a heart attack mumbling the one line I had in my seventh grade play.
At any rate, we were both signed on and when the photographer came to our house to shoot our new headshots my mom asked him to do headshots for Candice and Eli too. As soon as the agency saw those, they were signed on too. Yep, a whole family of models, which lasted about a month before we found out we were moving back to Utah, and thus ended our modeling careers as we all lost interest and moved on to other things (but not before Candice was an extra in a Jackie Chan movie).
I have to go back a bit to really explain this one. I am from a very creative, artistic family. Everyone had their own talents. My mom is an amazing decorator and quilter and can create just about anything with her hands that you can think of. My dad has picked up photography and even guest lectures at BYU on different developmental processes, he’s really talented with stained glass, and he can figure out how to build anything only he always does the highest quality work with his own finishing touches like he decides to build a pond in the backyard, but of course it has to have a waterfall made from sandstone that he quarried himself or he decides to build a shed but of course it needs stained glass windows and a copula and it ends up being so beautiful my mom won’t use it to stash dirty yard tools in it. Then there’s my older sister Candice, genius photographer, famous scrapbooker, and did you know that she used to be very into acting? She was in several plays in high school and college and she did a theater study abroad in London. Oh, and did I mention that she has an amazing singing voice? She was on one of Janice Kapp Perry’s CD’s when she was little and she was always chosen as the soloist in just about everything that you can think of, weddings, choir concerts, plays, you name it. My little brother Eli is the athlete of the family, but don’t think the creative gene skipped him. He’s a drummer and he had his own band through junior high and high school. And let’s not forget my little sister, Marissa. I would say that her creativity lies in her day to day activities. You are NEVER bored around Marissa and she easily talks the people around her into doing the craziest things and they never regret it because they have a blast. Like when Marissa convinced her roommate to dress up for their picture in the ward directory to make it look like a mug shot, huge ratted hair, fake black-eye, and cardboard sign with their number that they each held in front of them and all. Or when they got tickets to the monster truck rally and all dressed up like white trash and spent the evening hooting and hollering. Or a two night before she left on her mission when her girlfriends were spending the night and they had nothing to do so they decided around 1 a.m. to throw an unbirthday party and they went to Walmart to buy cupcake supplies and they each had two dollars to by a birthday gift for someone else in the group, then they went home and made crazy paper hats and partied. You never ever quite know what you’ll be doing when you hang out with Riss. Knowing that she’s so spunky, it’s probably not a surprise that she’s never been shy and when she was younger she really wanted to be an actress. She was in a lot of children’s plays and after a lot of begging and pleading, she convinced my mom to take her to an open call for a very reputable modeling agency (her best friend was represented by them and make a killing just by riding a bike in an Evian water commercial). At the time we lived in Hawaii so the open call meant a trip to the other side of the island and I went along with my mom and sister because I wanted to go to Costco afterwards with my mom. We waited in a big room with all the other kids and one by one they were called out to another room where they were turned down and sent home. We were the last ones left and figured Marissa would meet the same fate (although she was adorable) but instead the agent walked in with contracts in hand for both of us. I was totally surprised. Candice and Marissa were the actresses in the family; I almost had a heart attack mumbling the one line I had in my seventh grade play.
At any rate, we were both signed on and when the photographer came to our house to shoot our new headshots my mom asked him to do headshots for Candice and Eli too. As soon as the agency saw those, they were signed on too. Yep, a whole family of models, which lasted about a month before we found out we were moving back to Utah, and thus ended our modeling careers as we all lost interest and moved on to other things (but not before Candice was an extra in a Jackie Chan movie).
Anyway, I've mostly tried to forget about this embarrassing period of my life, but I was reminded about it by seeing a picture of myself on Candice's blog. I always feel so awkward in front of a camera. I am not photogenic so it's a good thing that I have a patient sister who also just happens to be a photographer or I wouldn't have any decent pictures of myself. Candice recently wrote an article about how so many women don't like to be in front of the camera, but it's important to capture them so we can remember the wonderful women around us and we can save our own memories. So here I am in all of my awkward glory.
I have been counting down the days until I am done with work, but getting together made me realize some of the things I'm really going to miss. Hopefully we'll all be able to get together again after the baby is born.
Larry and I agreed not to spend a lot of money this Valentine's Day, but I still wanted to do something special for him. There's a local company that I love called 
We like to end the evening with a snow themed movie like White Christmas or Happy Feet, but this year we were too busy talking and having fun to make it to the movie. At the end up the night we pack up the snowflakes and mail them to someone in need of some snow. Last year they went to my little sister who was spending her first winter in Las Vegas and this year I think they are heading to my little brother who is busy enjoying summer weather in Brazil.
He's great! He just got transfered to a new city, Itajaa, and he loves it (it doesn't hurt that one of the members there has a drum set that he's looking forward to playing (oh, how we do not miss Eli's band practicing around the house))
Here's Alicia celebrating as we got ready to hang the final two cranes.
It was a late night, but it was fun. The next morning I hung out with Alicia while she got ready. When Andy came to pick her up I was impressed that they both seemed so calm and said they were just ready to get the day over and start their life together.
Everyone kept telling me that the Denver Temple was small, but it is huge compared to the Columbus Temple. I don't think I'll ever get tired of attending sealing ceremonies (in the Mormon church we call them sealing ceremonies instead of weddings because we believe when you're married in a temple you are sealed together for time and all eternity). Each ceremony that I've attended since I've been married remind me of my own wedding day and how grateful I am to be marreid to Larry, which always makes me even happier thinking of the couple getting married as I think about all that they have to look forward to. Alicia and Andy glowed after the ceremony, but I didn't take a lot of pictures because I didn't want to get in the photographer's way (I hated it when I worked for a wedding photographer and all of the relatives and friends kept taking pictures so we couldn't get the shots that we needed).
Alicia looked so beautiful! She had her dress made for her and I had a hard time picturing it when she described it to me so it was exciting to see how perfect it was for her.
Continueing with the Asian theme at the reception, Alicia bought tons of white paper lanterns to hang in the entrance to the Taxi building. I love how they looked.
There was origami paper spread out on all of the tables with directions to fold origami.
There was origami in the boutineers and coursages
There was even a sushi chef.
And you know I love cupcakes so of course I loved this.
As amazing as all of the little details were, the best part was just seeing Alicia so happy. I'm glad that she found someone who is so supportive and appreciative of her, and I'm glad I had the chance to be there for such a special day.
