Blessed Beyond Measure: Friend Edition

One of the service prompts for the Light the World initiative this year was to post on social media about an influential friend or friends. I'm not on social media very often, but it occurred to me recently that I could post here!

I wouldn't be able to pick just one friend to highlight. I am blessed to have many good friends, several of whom I've known since childhood. I intend to name a few (and hopefully I can keep it to just a few, or this post would go on forever!). :)

I'm grateful for Kiera, who's been one of my best friends since kindergarten. She was and continues to be a powerful spiritual influence on my life -- in addition to being a whole lot of fun! Kiera's example and observations were so influential in helping me start to recognize the voice of the Spirit. I'm grateful for her spiritual sensitivity and also for her bottomless well of forgiveness in the times I wasn't the greatest friend.

I'm grateful for Summer, who became a good friend the first year Kiera and I weren't in the same school class. We became a trio, and I so appreciate her kindness and love.

I'm grateful for Sara, K.T., and Mikayla, who are still some of my best friends! Elementary school wouldn't have been the same without them. I love their creativity, kindness, and genuine goodness. All three of them are the kind of people who just want to do the right thing, and the world is better for it.

I'm grateful for Andrea, Ana, Ashley, Lauren, Mandy, Bree, Jenny, Belle, Aubrey, Joe, Ryan, Connor, and all my other high school friends! We may not be in contact as often as we used to be, but they truly made my high school years happy ones, and I'm better for it. I'm also grateful for Kiera's sister Whitney, who I became much closer to during and after high school (once I started growing out of the "I'm older than you so we can't hang out" phase).

Thank goodness for Jill, Mara, Holly, Lynette, Kelly, Sketti, Ary, and Katelyn. Again, we're not in contact as often as we used to be, but they were the best roommates I could have asked for!

Jennifer deserves her own paragraph. Before Jennifer moved into our apartment, I was surviving on cereal, bagels, croutons, and rice. We bonded over food and Korean dramas and never looked back. To this day, she is my "best California friend"! One of the happiest days of my life was attending her wedding to a great, worthy man. She is such a caring, intelligent, thoughtful person and I'm blessed to know her.

I also have many friends whom I met outside of school. Mission friends, the Draper family in California, Francie, Provo Temple baptistry friends and the Yarwood family in Utah are some examples. I connected with the Drapers through music. I connected with Michelle through food and Primary teaching. I love both their families so much.

There are many other people who have touched my life, and I hope to make many more friends as the journey continues. Friends help make life grand. Especially when you're as lucky in your friendships as I am. I wish everyone could have even just one true friend.

I love the Drapers

Whitney and I arrived safely in Sacramento on Saturday, and the first thing we did (after dinner) was meet my Draper family at a church family dance. :)

The Sabbath this week was wonderful. The Drapers don't have church until 2pm. I spent the morning looking at all the cool new toys Matthew and Nathaniel got for Christmas in the years it's been since I've got to play with them. We all also made Valentines and went on a walk.

Church was special. My favorite part was when a young boy, who Scott said was from a recently converted family, bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon. The kid even shared his favorite scripture.

After dinner later that day, we played Telestrations as a family and we were laughing so hard, our stomachs hurt.

Sorry I don't have pictures to share.

A perfect day in California

I got to see my Draper family a couple weeks ago when Mom, sister Mel, super awesome friend Jennifer and I took a road trip over Memorial Day weekend. Jennifer's parents let us stay with them for a few days and treated us really well. I love Jen's family!

My "perfect day" was Saturday. It started with biscuits and gravy, continued with a trip to the Sacramento LDS temple and Nathaniel's baptism, and finished with fun at the park by the Drapers' and homemade Mexican food. (Jennifer's mom and dad are THE BEST cooks!)

A weekend in Cali

This is it: the moment Jen and I have been waiting for since the beginning of the summer, when we planned a week-long vacation at her home in California.

We got here on Saturday about 2. (Jennifer woke me and Nana, her grandma, up at 4 so we could get an early start. I would have complained more about the hour except I was too excited- and Jen was taking the first driving shift, she being used to getting up at unearthly hours for her job.) In our first few days I met her three brothers Ryan, Brandon and Max, her parents, her cat Jasmine, Auntie Alice, Uncle Aaron, and several other people who were friends and/or related somehow. We went with her family to church.

On Monday, Jen drove me to the Drapers' house, where we were quickly introduced to the newest member of the family, a little white bunny with black around her eyes and spots. Marshmallow. Jennifer stayed with me with them for two days. We gave the family home evening lesson on Monday about things we'd learned going to college. The next days were full of piano playing, game playing, and just hanging out. I stayed until Wednesday. Highlights of that sadly undocumented trip (I forgot about my camera snug in my backpack): playing cards with Lindsay and Tyler, going to Target with Lindsay and Shannon, reading a bedtime story and playing Connect 4 and Battleship with Nathaniel, late-night conversation and cards with Lindsay, and having a "You're the fill-in-the-blank in the galaxy" fight with Matthew.

"You're the funniest in the entire galaxy!"

"You're the cutest in the entire galaxy!"

"No, you're the cutest in the entire galaxy!"

Sometimes Matthew included Jen in the fight too: "You're the most beautiful in the entire galaxy!"

At Target, while we were getting Lindsay school supplies, Shannon skipped down the aisles, we made fun of the overly enthusiastic lady with the high-pitched voice that announced at five-minute intervals that the store was closing. On the way to and from, we sang Taylor Swift and "Call Me Maybe" at the top of our lungs.

I love the Drapers.

Yesterday after meeting Jen and Nana in the parking lot of Tyler's and Nathaniel's piano lessons, Jen and I dropped Nana off at Auntie Alice's, who is her sister, stopped briefly at a taqueria (yummy) and managed to get on the last tour at the Jelly Belly Factory. After that, we went back and talked to Alice and Nana (I actually fell asleep for a few minutes there) and went back to Jen's house, where we all ate dinner before Jen and I went to Jen's friend's Sara's house to watch Hunger Games and talk.

It's been fun and I'll try to check in again before Jen, Nana and I leave to go back to Utah on Sunday. We'll see.

The concert!... and the Asian Pearl

I'm really tired right now so I hope I can do the stories of today justice.

The 10 Piano Concert went well. The K. 545 was a little rushed but still good, Tyler's group did awesome at the Happy Farmer, and Nathaniel was the best bower on stage. Saying goodbye to Hannah afterward was the hardest part. Lindsay especially will miss her roommate, I think. I'm glad I get to hang with the Drapers a little longer.

Shannon, Scott, Tyler and I also went to the banquet at Asian Pearl Restaurant after the concert. It was a super nice place. Shannon, Tyler and I got a little nervous when we walked in and saw an aquarium filled with a variety of sea creatures, all obviously on the menu for whoever asked for fish or crab or lobster (or whatever). We were even more concerned when we saw the labeled pictures on the walls highlighting certain dishes available at the restaurant. The most notable one was the intestines of some animal I can't remember (Shannon says goose). We found our table and joked about what we were about to eat until the banquet began.

Our fears were put to rest when the servers brought out a huge plate of something very similar to chips and orange sauce. Next came eggrolls (when the server brought them to our table, Tyler said loudly and happily, "Yum! Taquitos!" to which we replied, "No," after which he guessed, "Tamales?"), then candied shrimp and walnuts, a small cup of soup with shrimp and hickima (jicama) and green peppers (Shannon said, "Great, now we get to eat shrimp that's floating!" She's not a fan of rubbery textures), rice, orange chicken, beef and broccoli, tofu, fried rice, noodles and small sea animals including more shrimp and palm-sized octopi, with orange slices for dessert. With the exception of the orange slices, the food got less Americanized the farther through the courses we got. There was SO MUCH FOOD. My favorite was the candied shrimp; I was full by the orange chicken. I did eat an octopus (tastes just like shrimp, but more rubbery) just so I could say I've done it.

But the night wouldn't have been complete without a small humbling experience for me and a noisy wedding in the room next door (Scott got the giggles over the live Asian rock music they were playing). It was really hard to hear all the speeches and stuff at the end over the other party, but really by then I was too tired to care. Shannon felt bad for the Japanese teachers and everyone who put a lot of work into the concert, though, and I see her point.

The humbling experience came when one of the servers offered us styrofoam containers to take some of the food home. Tyler and I really wanted to bring home an octopus to show Lindsay, Nathaniel and Matthew, but there weren't any left on the plate on our table. Tyler glanced over at the table beside us and saw they had two octopi. It seemed perfectly natural for me to go to that table and pick the octopi out of the noodles for our container - everyone was done eating over there, after all. Unfortunately it didn't occur to me to ask permission before I helped myself to their serving dish. Two ladies I either didn't see when I took the octopi or walked up a heartbeat after I did it were kind of offended.

"Excuse me," one of the ladies said, causing me to turn and see them for the first time. "That's our table. We were going to take some of that home. Weren't you sitting at that table there?"

I was pretty embarrassed. I also felt pretty bad. "I'm so sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to - do you want them back?"

The ladies looked at me like I'd sprouted two heads. "No, that's okay," she said. "Keep them."

I apologized again to one of the ladies right before we left because I still felt bad. She knew exactly what I was referring to when I said, "Sorry again."

"Oh yeah. That was kinda weird," she said. I tried to explain but I have a feeling I'm still on their bad list because she didn't respond. Good thing the charges aren't more serious than stealing octopi. Shannon thought it was funny. Nathaniel and Lindsay were sufficiently impressed. So at least I didn't do it for nothing.

Dress Rehearsal

Got a go-get-'em talk by the Japanese teachers that basically consisted of "Play like this tomorrow!" after the K. 545 group rocked our dress rehearsal today! It took some work to get to that point, so that's what we'll be practicing individually before the concert tomorrow - SINGING the melody. When we play loud (which they encouraged us to do), we can hear our own sound bouncing off the walls of the hall. We ECHO!

I have LOVED being here for my second 10 Piano Concert in Sacramento, with the Drapers and Hannah! It's been great, and I'm looking forward to putting the culmination of everything I've learned and practiced into our piece tomorrow. Following that (and the banquet), I'm both sad and thrilled to be returning home Sunday.

Cafe Rio!

Today was Cafe Rio wraps day! I tended the pork last night before bed and today before and after my and Hannah's rehearsal (Tyler had the day off). It turned out great! Hannah made pink lemonade ice cream cake, which is one of her favorite desserts. That turned out well too. After dinner (and before dessert), we went to a local pool and played hard for two hours! Now I'm tired and I reek of chlorine. But I had a blast.

Humorous story of the day: Lindsay had a violin lesson this morning and Shannon took all her kids from about 9:30 to noon so Hannah and I could have a golden opportunity to practice piano. After we both ran through our skill spots, played the song through a couple times and finished our practice, we put in a movie and watched the first hour of it. I knew we had a lot to do once Shannon and company returned, and I didn't want to deal with trying to drag not only myself, but four other kids away from the TV, so at noon I asked Hannah to turn it off. She did so without question and we turned off the TV and put away the movie as if nothing had happened. I even went back to the piano and started a second practice, so when Shannon and everyone came in from the garage a few minutes later, she made a passing remark like, "Wow, you haven't moved in the whole three hours we were gone!" (To which I replied, "Trust me, I've moved.") I wasn't trying to hide the fact we'd been watching Ever After, just make it as un-obvious as possible.

Later that afternoon, when Scott took the boys to a park and after Hannah and I had finished all we could do on our respective dessert and dinner dishes, we popped the DVD back in and finished it up. Lindsay and Shannon were surprised when they came in from the other room to find us in the middle of the movie.

"Sneaky, Jessica," Shannon said to me. "I guess I DID tell you before I left the house you could do whatever you wanted. But it was pretty sneaky to get back on the piano before we came in... I think I'm seeing a dark side of you." (Later, she teased me about something else, but similar: "Wow, Jess, you DO have a dark side. I'm glad to know you're as human as the rest of us!")

Fun at 6 Flags Discovery Kingdom

Today was 6 Flags day!

The bad news - my camera will not turn on at all, even with the new/old batteries Scott tried to give me. The good news - Lindsay brought a disposable camera!

Hannah, Lindsay and I had a GREAT time at the park. We started with two roller coasters (I went on a roller coaster!), then rode the flying swings a few times and did bumper cars. We made sure to get seats in the Splash Zone for the killer whale show at 1 and very much enjoyed getting soaked. After the show, we basically spent all our time looking for a place to eat that wasn't super expensive (which was difficult) - clear up until we had to meet back at the front gate to get back on the bus. We got lost a lot.

There's one story that I have to share because it was so funny: After wandering the park for a good half hour or so on our hunt for food, Hannah finally bought a giant pretzel with cheese on the side, which she graciously shared as we sat at one of the shady tables by a very expensive hamburger place.

We'd just polished off the last of the pretzel when I saw Hannah's face light up at something behind me. Before I knew it, she was reaching into the trash can right next to me and lifting out a cardboard platter full of French fries and a single untouched chicken strip from the hamburger place we were sitting by.

"Did you just get that out of the trash?" I asked in disbelief as Hannah immediately picked up a fry and chowed down. Lindsay looked shocked for a moment, but then she dug in too. I looked the plate over suspiciously. "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing," Hannah responded with her mouth full. "A lady just barely threw it away. You just didn't see because your back is to the garbage can."

That was all the reassurance I needed. I gave the food a last, quick once-over before accepting a piece of the chicken strip (which Hannah had divided in three).

"She didn't really even throw it away," Lindsay said. "She just set it in there. Some people are so wasteful."

"This food isn't wasted," I pointed out. "We're eating it."

"Will you go see if they'll give us some ketchup?" Hannah asked, referring to the hamburger place. I jumped up from the table and brought back a couple ketchup packets and a little tub of really yummy barbecue sauce in response. We devoured everything on the plate in about three minutes, and walked around the park very giggly and satisfied for a while after that.

Lindsay couldn't wait to tell Shannon and Scott what we did, but we convinced her to let Hannah tell the story at dinner when the whole family was there. Hannah is a master storyteller. She told it exactly as it happened while dramatizing it a little bit for effect.

(Shannon and Scott - thanks for letting us take Lindsay, and for making it possible for Hannah and I to go!)

Progress

Word has it (and again I quote the music grapevine) that the Sonata K. 545 is the most improved pianist group in 10 Piano. The Japanese teachers gave us candy at our rehearsal yesterday; we were the only ones I know of who got some. So, either they were handing it out as a reward or they're moving on to bribery.

Hannah also spent a good hour and a half meeting Lindsay's request to crimp her hair Friday morning. (I think it was Friday.)




Yesterday was a pretty busy day: Hannah and I had a rehearsal at 12:45 and Shannon took us, Lindsay, Tyler and Nathaniel to the Jelly Belly Factory afterward. My camera ran out of batteries recently and I accidentally packed the wrong kind of extra batteries so I was glad when Shannon took lots of pictures with her camera. Right now they're still on her camera, but I'll post them when she or Scott has time to download them to the computer.

Hannah holding Snowball, the Drapers' rabbit

Shout-out to Snowbird

Hello people at Snowbird reunion! I love you all and wish I could be in two places at once so I could tell you in person!

Shout-outs: Aunt Debbie and Kerr cousins, Aaron!, MASON and Ethan (as well as Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike, I guess... :) ), Kayla and Kara of course

Upcoming events for my 10 Piano working vacation:

• 6 Flags! on Monday! with Hannah and Lindsay!
• Jello cake for dessert tomorrow! and hopefully Cafe Rio wraps
• REHEARSAL... EVERY DAY THIS WEEK (Tuesday-Friday) - Friday being the dress rehearsal, I believe (has time really gone by that quickly?)

Good night; enjoy church tomorrow and FHE... also tomorrow? Grandma's worked hard on FHE and I think you'll enjoy it!

More practice; more fun

Went to a water park today (don't think Seven Peaks; think more along the lines of the Olympic Fountain in Gateway) and a regular park for Nathaniel's soccer practice.

Tire swing at the water park

Climbing trees with Hannah at the regular park

Practice, practice, practice

Today was the opposite of yesterday: lazy morning in which Shannon took all her kids to a home school group social thing until noon and Hannah and I spent the hours practicing, playing on the computer and watching The Little Rascals in the quiet house all by ourselves; then a busy afternoon. Pretty soon after lunch, it was off to rehearsal and then soccer practice for Lindsay, dinner, games and an after-the-boys-are-in-bed trip to the grocery store for me, Hannah and Shannon.

Rehearsal went pretty well. The Japanese teachers complimented us almost right off after they asked us to play through our song: "We can tell you have been using metronome." Then they proceeded to give us several more spots to work on, adding dynamics to some of the old skill spots. I was glad to hear Tyler say we played a lot more together today. He should know - he's been at every one of our rehearsals so far.

Tyler, Hannah and I have all been working hard refining our performance pieces (Tyler is doing Happy Farmer). Hannah especially is very dedicated. She's a good example of diligence and very willing to help me with or discuss the K. 545. She's also in high demand for helping Tyler and Nathaniel with their piano practices.

When we're not practicing, the hours continue to fly by with fun outings, games and yummy food. Shannon is amazing.

Today and yesterday

10 piano rehearsal went OK yesterday. Hannah was even more nervous for this one than our first one, and she may have rubbed off on me a little bit... It was still mostly enjoyable, but the Japanese teachers got frustrated because we're having problems playing together and people kept making mistakes. They said for tomorrow's rehearsal they're going to make everyone who makes a mistake stop playing and stand up. It was fun to see Cleo and Mrs. Tuttle there (my piano teachers). According to the music grapevine, the Japanese teachers consider the K. 545 to be one of the worst groups thus far. We'll have to change that.

Thankfully, Shannon made plans to have FHE on the grounds of the Sacramento Temple that evening, so Hannah and I got to unwind in that peaceful setting after our stressful rehearsal. There was one exciting moment when Matthew was wandering over to the drinking fountain a few yards away from our picnic dinner when Hannah started yelling, "Snake! Snake! In the grass!"

Shannon darted to Matthew and picked him up, protesting, while the rest of us took a few steps forward to see what kind of snake it was. After Shannon and Hannah's rattler stories I was kind of scared, but it turned out to be only a garter snake - and a hurt one at that. Its tail was oozing blood. At first we thought Matthew may have stepped on it by mistake, but a quick shoe check proved otherwise. The snake slithered away from us when we leaned forward for a closer look. Tyler was especially fascinated with it, although he understood the potential danger. Nobody got bit. The incident was nearly forgotten when Hannah, Matthew, Tyler, Nathaniel, Lindsay and I discovered a smooth stretch of granite to the side of a staircase (holding up the staircase railing) by the temple - a perfect slide!

Today was characterized by a busy morning and a lazy afternoon. Hannah, Lindsay and I went walking with Shannon again at 7 in the morning, then some people did music practice after breakfast, after which we ran errands (one of which was going to the Costco optometry place to get Hannah's glasses fixed - she lost a screw last night right before we were trying to leave for FHE and Scott had to wire the frame back together until we could go to an optometry center).

After we came home from errands (and getting treats at two separate places), Hannah and I practiced and then the lazy afternoon began, complete with card games, hand games, and board games. Fun times.

Monday

Matthew on the slip n' slide

It took Tyler a long time to decide to get wet

Matthew

Matthew, Tyler

Hannah, Nathaniel

Nathaniel and Matthew, who enjoyed randomly turning the water off and on

Hannah

Playing Ninja again

(Tyler, Lindsay, Nathaniel)

Hannah knows lots of hand games. Lindsay likes to learn them so she can play them with her

Everyone was really concerned about the state of Hannah's glasses

Scott used pliers and a little paperclip to wire the frame back together until we could get a new screw

Looking at the poor wounded garter snake at the Sacramento LDS Temple

Tuesday

Hannah played with Star Wars figures with Nathaniel and I this morning after Nathaniel practiced his songs on the piano

...it was about time somebody took my camera to use on me instead of the other way around... Hannah got this picture

Hannah and Lindsay made almost the same face. :)

Matthew and Hannah

Happy birthday Matthew

Nathaniel (who was my special buddy two years ago) is talking to me finally! He was shy for the first two days but I broke out the big guns today with a glow-in-the-dark shark puzzle and the next thing I knew, I was the bedtime story reader of choice (he chose me over Shannon) and three stories later, we were still going strong talking about Star Wars figures.

Matthew also turned three today. He is super cute. He talks now - a change from two years ago. His favorite present was a Cars 2 LEGO set. He was sooo excited.

Hannah and I did part of our piano practice together today so we could quiz each other on the skill spots the Japanese teachers assigned yesterday. It was much more fun than practicing by myself. We even played the K.545 a few times in extra high and low octaves so we could play on the same piano at the same time. The standard piano keyboard isn't quite big enough to fit all the notes, but we had a blast anyway.

First rehearsal, walks, sports and rattlesnakes

Hannah, Lindsay, Shannon and I took a morning walk beginning about 7 A.M., in which we enjoyed watching for bunnies on the side of the trail and telling stories. Hannah did most of the talking. ;) Shannon showed us a rocky place where Lindsay almost stepped on a rattlesnake, Hannah told us about her "wonderful" dream last night and then shared her own snake stories, and I (not to be outdone) described the scare one of the moms from Graig's orchestra had recently with grapes and a black widow spider.

After breakfast, Hannah and I prepared for our first 10 piano rehearsal around lunchtime today. I thought the group practice went pretty well and even enjoyed it. The teacher assigned to my piano only had to correct me about a hundred times, and there was only one time when I was the only one to make a mistake. Hannah, on the other hand, said the practice was worse than she thought it would be (she was a little nervous going in). As piano 10, she's apparently responsible for keeping the rest of us in tempo. I told her they picked a good person for the job; she just shrugged. It doesn't help that it hurts her to play piano because of a painful cyst on her wrist (rhyme unintended), which is why she wears a black wrist brace most of the time (whenever she's not playing piano).

The afternoon and evening ended with a big water fight complete with water balloons, sand volleyball and tennis. I'm pretty worn out.

Drapers!

There was a moment in the plane above the world when I had misgivings about traveling to California. It's been nice being home. Then I considered the difficulty of going back after going to all this trouble to get to Cali and thought of the Drapers, and the moment passed.

Incredibly, my bag was the first one off the plane, I met the entire Draper family (minus Scott but plus Hannah) without mishap outside the baggage claim, and we've already picked up where we left off two years ago. I love my "real" family, but El Dorado Hills is definitely my second home.

Playing Slap Jack

(Hannah, Tyler, Lindsay)

Lindsay waiting for her turn in Around the World

Hannah celebrates after swishing a basket

Playing Ninja

CALIFORNIA OR BUST!

I'm so excited! Draper family (and Hannah), here I come!