Happy Now--April 27

 This past month has flown by!  It was busy, but also very happy.  I started a new post several weeks ago, so I will keep those original Happy Now moments and just add to them.  Since I am covering about a month, I am allowing myself a Happy Now 16.  Here they are (listed pretty much in chronological order).

1.  Geese--When Darren and I first moved to Pinedale last August, I loved the open spaces and nature that surrounded us.  The air smelled fresher, the grass looked greener, and I loved becoming acquainted with new sounds in nature.  For some reason, the sound a flock of geese made every morning as it flew over our home was a particular favorite.  It just seemed so .... country.  It wasn't long before the geese left and winter came.  But last Monday (which is now several Mondays ago), as I was eating breakfast, I heard them again.  They're back!  It is the Wyoming version of seagulls and ocean waves.  It made me so happy!

2.  Bread Making--For many years, the Sonnes had a tradition of making Grandma Elaine's bread every Christmas.  This was always a group effort and, with several extended family members, kneading the bread two or three times was usually the extent of my involvement in the bread making process.  I recently used a fairly simple recipe for wheat bread I had found to attempt the whole process on my own.  Success!

3.  Frozen Yogurt--Darren and I finally got around to trying the new frozen yogurt shop it Pinedale.  It was great, and I'm so glad it's here!

4.  Mom's Birthday--Mom's birthday was March 27.  I am so, so grateful for her.  She is an example to me in every way, and someone who I try to emulate in my interactions with others.  When my Papa John (my mom's dad) died last year, I was given a picture he had had in his apartment of me and my mom when I was a baby.  Paired next to a picture from my wedding, that picture represents what a source of support and strength my mom has been to me all these years, and how blessed I've been to have always had her by my side.  Love you, Mom!

5.  Chris is Engaged!--This was the happiest moment of the whole month for me!  Chris called me and Darren on the evening of March 30 to let us know that he and Christiane Cannon were engaged.  Christiane got on the phone with him at the end, and it was great to have a moment to celebrate with them both.  We have yet to meet Christiane, but I can tell how happy she makes my brother and I couldn't be more happy for them both.  I have heard so many wonderful things about her.  So glad to have you join the family, Christiane! 

6.  Snowshoeing--My last snowshoeing experience was several years ago ... and wasn't particularly fun.    Darren talked me into getting out and trying it again at the beginning of April, and I'm so glad he did!  It was a beautiful day, and the snow was just right.  Darren (who had bought snowshoes for himself and his future wife before we even met) was equipped.  It was fun to see him so much in his element.

7.  General Conference--I love this time of year.  There were so many wonderful messages shared at General Conference at the beginning of April, and I am grateful to be able to review them online and through the Ensign.  What a blessing!  And a special thank you to Katie Houston and her family for letting me watch the Saturday sessions with them!

8.  Dad's Early Arrival--Some "family business" required me to be in Salt Lake from April 3-22.  Due to work, Darren couldn't join me until April 13.  My parents also planned to come out and spend some time with us from the 11-20.  I was so THRILLED when my dad called and said he had rearranged his schedule to join me on the evening of the 5th.  Having constant company with me for that first week was a real-life saver.  I will always remember that week we spent together.  Thanks so much, Dad!

9.  Logan Trip--One of the things my dad and I did during our first week in Utah was to take a little road trip to Logan.  My great-grandpa, Alma Sonne, raised his family in Logan (which included his son, my grandpa, Conway Sonne).  Alma was President of the local bank (originally the First National Bank and now the Cache Valley Bank) and was Chairman of the Board of Directors at Utah State University (where my Grandpa Conway eventually met my Grandma Elaine).  It was fun to visit some of the old "Sonne sites" and learn a little more about my family history.  Dad, as always, was a great traveling companion.

Alma Sonne's house on Main St. in Logan.  It is now a dental lab.  The kind people inside let us look around (they have kept everything looking very "homey") and gave us a type-written history of the house they had found in a drawer when they moved in.  From that history we learned that the builder of the home was Fred Dahle, Alma's friend who served a mission for the Church with him in England  and whose illness prevented Fred, Alma, and a few other missionaries from returning home on the Titanic!

Although it is now called the Cache Valley Bank, the old First National Bank lettering from when my Great-Grandpa worked there is still on the steps.

The outside of what is now the Cache Valley Bank.  One of the Bank clerks also gave us a tour of the bank.  It brought back many memories for my dad from when he had visited the bank in the 70s to get his first bank loan from Grandpa Alma for college.

Dad and I had lunch at "The Bluebird" (apparently a hot-spot while my grandparents were in college and where both of my grandparents wrote in their journals about going on dates)!

"Kater" has been a nickname for as long as I can remember, so it was fun to see this as we were walking along Main St.

10.  Mom and Darren's Arrival--Dad and I had a really fun time together, but we were both excited about having mom, and then Darren, join us.  Mom arrived on the 11th.  We stayed in SLC a couple more days before meeting up with Darren in Park City.  It was wonderful to have the family all together (we just missed Chris and Christiane)!

11.  Temple Walk with Mom--Before we left for Park City, Mom and I took a walk around Temple Square (it is SO beautiful this time of year) and up to the Capitol Building.  On our walk we found a little butterfly in the middle of the sidewalk.  This butterfly took to my mom immediately and would change direction to follow where my mom moved.  It was really kind of amazing!  Eventually we decided we had to be on our way but wanted to move our new little friend onto the grass out the the way of foot traffic. :)

Moving our friend to a safer spot.

12. Dad's Birthday--We were lucky enough to be with my dad in Park City on his birthday.  I think my dad is one of the most selfless people I know.  He somehow managed to make all of us feel good and special on HIS birthday.  I'll excited for any opportunity I have to celebrate him.  I couldn't be more blessed than to have him as a father.  Love you, Dad!

Dad's Birthday Dinner

Dad's Birthday Dinner

Birthday Banana Cream Pie!

13.  Dinner with Chaffees--The Chaffees are basically family members, and it had been WAY too long since we had seen them.  We made plans to meet up in Salt Lake with Phil and Stephanie for dinner once my parents and Darren were in town.  It was SO great to see them!  I have so many wonderful memories with the Chaffee family, and seeing them brought all of those memories back.  I love and admire Phil and Steph's strength, humor, testimony, and the love they share with everyone.  I hope to see them and their girls again soon!

14.  Dinner with Roommates--My friends and former roommates Katie and Melissa made the effort to come visit us in Park City while we were there.  We had a chance to have dinner and visit for a bit, but the time went by much too quickly (even though I had also had dinner with them in Salt Lake earlier in the month, there just never seems to be enough time with these wonderful ladies).  I am so blessed to have such supportive friends!

15.  Peter Yarrow Concert--I found out the Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame) was having a concert at the Egyptian Theater in Park City while we were there.  Knowing my Dad liked/likes some of Peter, Paul, and Mary's songs, Darren, Chris, and I went in on 4 tickets as a birthday present to my dad.  It was a fun (if at times slightly interesting) evening, and it brought back a lot of memories for me and my parents.  I remember sitting around the campfire at Stanford Sierra Camp or on the deck at Laguna during Sonne family reunions each summer growing up singing such classics as "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Blowin' in the Wind", "If I Had a Hammer", etc.  It sure made me feel nostalgic.  My favorite part of the concert, though, was when Peter (and his son who was performing with him) invited all the children at the concert onstage to sing "Puff, the Magic Dragon."  He gave the microphone over to several of the kids during the song, and it was pretty adorable.  All in all, it was definitely a memorable evening.  :)

Mom and Dad at the concert.

Calling the kids onstage for "Puff, the Magic Dragon."  I took this shot a little early.  He had quite a crowd by the end!

16.  Easter--It never fails that my mom manages to make holidays special for her family no matter where we are.  On Easter morning when Darren and I came out of our hotel bedroom, we found some Easter gifts set up for us on the table, including a beautiful Jan Brett book on Easter.  I love this holiday and the reminder that it is of the blessing of the Atonement.  How grateful I am for the Atonement and a loving Father in Heaven and Savior who loved each of us enough to make it an essential part of their Plan of Happiness.

As I finish this post, I can think of about 16 more things that made me happy over the past few weeks.  I especially want to thank the Walker family for allowing me to stay in their beautiful condo in Draper for part of the time I was in Utah.  Overall, my heart is just full of gratitude for all the friends, family, and events that filled up last month.  I am truly blessed.

Perspective

This weekend was General Conference weekend.  How I love these opportunities to curl up on my couch with a blanket and some hot cocoa (now that we're in Pinedale, that is) to soak in the inspired words of prophets, apostles, and other Church leaders of our day.  As I listened to the messages that were shared, I realized that I have let too many days go by without recording how grateful I feel for the events that have brought us here to Pinedale.  As generally happens after watching Conference, I feel that I view many things in life with a renewed perspective--thank goodness Conference comes every six months!  It is amazing to me how a place like Pinedale, that initially felt so foreign, can so quickly feel like home.  After nearly eight weeks here, I almost fear ever having to leave.  Quite a change from my last post, isn't it?

Let's start at the very beginning, shall we? (I have an urge to quote another Sound of Music song here, but I will resist.) At this time last year, we were living in Gilbert, Az, and Darren was in the middle of his first semester of law school.  While we were/are grateful for the opportunity Darren had to attend law school, a goal he had had for himself for several years, we agreed after a while that a life in the law was not right for us.  What followed was a few months of not knowing what path we should take.  I was in my fourth year of teaching 5th grade and Darren found a job that seemed like a good choice for the time being.  We began looking at homes in the Gilbert area.  Although we loved the area (who wouldn't love 70 degree temperatures in the winter, wonderful people, a relatively short drive home to family in Ca, and the opportunity to participate in the open house of a temple almost across the street from us??), we continued to hesitate in making these big decisions.  Darren began looking for other job opportunities and reached out to someone he knew from a ward he had lived in in Utah.  This friend had an unexpected connection with a company called Clean Harbors.  Darren got in touch with the Clean Harbors contact and after a phone interview, was asked if he could come to Wy for an in-person interview.  It just so happened that we were flying into Salt Lake that weekend for a family reunion with some of my dad's extended family in Manti.  We could take a 2 hour detour into Wy and then meet up with my family in Manti.  In order to keep this post from becoming a novel, I will bullet point some of the significant events that happened after that:

• Something that NEVER happens to this slightly obsessive traveler happened with our flight to SLC--we missed boarding our flight by 10 minutes.  I did not handle this event gracefully.  As it turned out, though, the next flight got us into the SLC, and then Wy, at a time that worked much better for the person interviewing Darren.  He told us he had had things come up during the day that would have prevented him from interviewing Darren at our originally appointed time.  He ended up taking us both out to dinner after work and interviewing Darren at the restaurant (a slightly nerve-racking experience for me, but Darren did great!).
• Darren was interviewed Friday night (July 19), we attended the Wintch reunion Saturday and Sunday (which was a lot of fun--see picture below), we both returned to work on Monday, and on Tuesday Darren received a call from Clean Harbors being offered the job--a great opportunity in their Pinedale, Wy location (a place I had previously never heard of).  It was going to be a big change, but it was a better fit for both of us in many ways.  We felt it was the right step to make.  Going to talk to the director of my school once we had decided to accept the job offer, however, was one of the scariest things I had ever done.  Not that any of my administrators inspired fear, but we were in our faculty training week and my fifth year of teaching was to start that following Monday.  I felt horribly guilty about bringing this change to my administrators the week before school started.  One tender mercy?  My administration and coworkers were extremely gracious.  They were excited for us.  Some of them knew of Pinedale and had only nice things to say about the area.  I told them that Darren had to leave for Wy the week of August 12, but that I would be willing to stay until mid-September if they needed that extra time to find a replacement.  Another tender mercy?  It worked out that my last day was on August 8, just in time for me to visit Pinedale with Darren to find a place to live and make the move with him!
• Darren had an old truck with "a few mechanical issues"that we wanted to try and sell before moving.  Right before we left, someone with an understanding of all of the truck's issues and who knew how to fix them offered us our asking price, which covered most of our moving expenses.
• The weekend of August 9-11, Darren and I flew to Pinedale to find a place to live.  We had an appointment with a realtor to show us some apartments for rent.  The apartments she showed us were pretty sketchy and in areas we didn't particularly like.  A few tears may have been shed (by me, not Darren).  At the end of our meeting, the realtor mentioned that there was a house for rent off of Fayette Pole Creek Rd, an area we had yet to explore.  Darren and I drove out there on our own and I immediately fell in love with the road and community.  We really wanted to make something work in this area.  We were shown the home and jumped at the opportunity to claim something on this road.  We secured the deal and traveled up to Jackson Hole to celebrate my 30th birthday (a day early) and this new chapter in our life.
• We returned to Gilbert, packed up our massive moving truck, and drove for two and a half days to become official residents in Pinedale.  We moved into our home on Pole Creek Rd. with the help of the Cornelison family (thank you Scott, Angie, Annalyse, and Natalie!).  After a week and a half of living in that home, however, we discovered it had some issues as an old home that we were not prepared to handle.  When we addressed our concerns with our landlord, we were once again met with a very gracious response, and she let us out of our rental agreement.  We then were looking for a new place to live, a somewhat daunting experience after our meeting with that initial realtor.  We went to our new ward on Sunday and I shared our situation with some sisters in Relief Society.  After listening to me, one woman gave me the name and number of a family in the ward that was moving and wanted to rent the apartment attached to their home.  Guess where they lived.  This beautiful home and apartment was half a mile up the road on Pole Creek from the first house.  We contacted the family and were able to move (again!) with the help of our new neighbors that following week.  Needless to say, we felt very blessed.  We have loved and been very comfortable in this new home.
• Finally, the people here in Pinedale, and more specifically in our Temple Peak Ward, have been amazing.  Within a week of living in our new home, we were invited to several Sunday dinners and were given opportunities to become more involved in the community.  My parents have had the opportunity to visit (which always makes a place feel more like home), and Darren and I have already started drooling over a plot of land close to where we're currently living.  I have even forgiven Pinedale for its first snowfall that came a week ago, while we were still in September!  We are home!

Riding horses at the Wintch reunion--Darren was there, too, but he's hiding behind my dad in this picture.

Moving Day--Leaving Gilbert

Wyoming sunset

Downtown Pinedale

30th Birthday Dinner in Jackson


View from birthday Gondola ride in Jackson


Autumn in Pinedale along Fayette Pole Creek Rd.

First snowfall in Pinedale (view from our balcony)

New truck for Darren--with 4WD!

Mom and Dad next to Pine Creek during their visit to Pinedale 

General Conference

Twice a year, the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak to the world about things relevant to our time in General Conference.  These men and women teach us how to have more peace, joy, and hope in our lives.  General Conference weekends are two of my favorite weekends of the year because they are always filled with such wisdom, insight, and direction.  The fall General Conference takes place the first weekend in October and, as usual, I loved watching every minute last week.  It was especially exciting to get to hear a story shared by Elder Cook about my great-grandfather, Alma Sonne (I may have started jumping up and down when he started the Titanic story)!  As a side note, Alma Sonne had a ring made after that experience with his initials "AS" on the top and the date he finished his mission in England on the inside.  Because of the experience Alma had at the end of his mission with the Titanic, the ring came to symbolize faith, following the promptings of the Spirit, and the importance of remaining loyal to friends.  Alma wore it everyday and, when he died, it was passed down to my dad who has the same initials and who now wears it on a daily basis.

The Saturday before General Conference, there was also a special broadcast from Salt Lake City just for the women of the Church.  The women who make up the General Relief Society Presidency (the organization of women in the LDS Church) speak as well as a member of the First Presidency of the Church (the Prophet or one of his counselors).  I learned so much from all of the words spoken, but perhaps the biggest messages I heard were 1) God loves his children and is aware of their needs, 2) the challenges we face are meant to strengthen us and bring us joy if we endure, and 3) we don't need to wait to find happiness, but can be grateful for the many blessings we have NOW.

Inspired by these messages, I've decided I need to take more time to reflect on the things for which I am grateful every week.  Every Sunday I plan to write a blog post listing 10 things I was grateful for that week.  There are the big things for which I will be forever grateful and that go without saying, such as the family, friends, and Gospel that continually enrich my life.  I hope the "Happy Now" posts will help me reflect on the small things that happen each week that often get over looked but, nonetheless, make my life the happy one that it is!  The "Happy Now" title comes from President Uchtdorf's talk during the General Relief Society Broadcast two weeks ago in which he counseled us to "forget not to be happy now."  Look for the first post next. :)