Sunday, May 22, 2011

Too Much Excitement

In addition to the unpredictable weather (it's been raining so much!!), May has been an unusual month for us.

A week and a half ago, we had Thomas' dad as a guest for several days. He was in town to speak at a symposium held last Saturday. It was enjoyable to have him around, even though his schedule was pretty full! We all drove up to the Bountiful temple that Friday to attend a session with Thomas' grandmother and aunt.

Bountiful, UT temple
Pretty color combination in the flower beds outside of the temple
 Although we ended up in a different temple session than they did, we enjoyed the beauty of the temple and ran into some friends unexpectedly, with whom we chatted while waiting to meet up with our relatives. It is funny how small the world can seem sometimes!

Jeff, Bonnie, Thomas, Lisa, & Elma in the front
That evening, after I got some hours in at work, Thomas' dad took us out to dinner at La Dolce Vita, an Italian restaurant down the street that we'd been meaning to try for a while. We enjoyed our pasta and especially our desserts, and the Bradshaw boys reminisced about a ritzy restaurant they had been to once on a late night in Italy.

Bradshaws enjoying chocolate cakes and cheesecake at La Dolce Vita!
On Saturday, Thomas got to attend most of the Expound Symposium, held at the Provo Library. I was able to be there to hear Jeff's presentation and the one right after, but work, Calculus homework, and a trip to the grocery store kept me from the rest of it.

The Provo library
Matthew B. Brown, symposium founder, introducing the symposium
Jeffrey M. Bradshaw (Thomas' dad, of course!)
 We all enjoyed dinner out that evening, too, at Magleby's with other symposium speakers and attendees. I even tried crab legs for the first time, and liked them pretty well. The conversation and company were interesting and thought-provoking, and we left full in body, mind, and spirit!

 


Sunday morning is when things really got crazy, though. Thomas' dad went up to Salt Lake to attend Grandma Bradshaw's ward. Thomas and I, sleeping in for the first time in what felt like forever, experienced a rude awakening by a crash and a knock at our door not long before the alarm was to go off. Well, actually, only the knock woke me. Not the crash. Didn't hear it at all.

Thomas went to answer the door, and came back a few moments later to report that "there'd been an accident." I was pretty groggy, and didn't get up until he told me "our car was probably involved."

WHAT?!

Here's the "CAR-nage" I saw when I looked out the window:


Apparently the 19-year-old driver aroused the suspicions of the passengers in the van driving behind him when he went through the round-about a few blocks away going the wrong direction. They called authorities then, and were the first on the scene after the driver plowed into our parked car. The crash woke all our neighbors, and our upstairs neighbor helped the inebriated driver out of his wrecked car, across the grass, and onto the steps of our four-plex.


I don't really know how 5 cars were involved in the wreck - the driver must have been going ridiculously fast. But I do know he hit our car, which hit the car behind it, which hit the car behind it, which sent the car behind it soaring about 20 feet behind where it had been parked. There's definitely paint from his car on the light-post in the grassy area between the street and the sidewalk, and the cement there is chipped, and some of the asphalt was damaged as well.

My drawing of "BEFORE" - the black to the right of the cars is the driveway.
My drawing of "AFTER" - the grey spot on the grass is the light-post.
Anyway, we watched while they towed his car, our car, and the car that had been behind our car - all of which were declared "totaled" - and they took the driver away on a stretcher. He didn't look too badly hurt, but he did have a gash on his forehead that was bleeding. 

ha- the windshield we replaced in January...
good little car, though- runnin' fine with that many miles on it!
The following couple of days were a little stressful, since my little Honda has been the one car we've been using/sharing. Fortunately, we were able to use Thomas' dad's rental for a little while on Monday before he left. That night, our friends the Childs helped us with a needed ride. Then, on Tuesday, some of our friends in the ward lent us their extra car. We were blessed to be able to get Thomas' Pontiac road-ready by Tuesday afternoon, so our transportation problem has been solved. It was a blessing to have that second car around, really; we had meant to sell it last summer!

We had our special plates for like... 2 months. :o(
All in all, this experience helped us to put some things into perspective. We are so glad that this didn't happen on a weekday, when a school and many drivers on their way to work/school/whatever would have been in the path of this renegade driver. Even though it was an inconvenience (and a shock!) to us, it could have cost much more than money; it could have cost lives. Things have worked out pretty well so far, and hopefully we will hear from the guy's insurance again tomorrow (or sometime soon).

Overall, life is good and we are happy and healthy. I'm halfway through my classes for the term, and Thomas has had several interviews, which will hopefully turn into job offers. We are thankful for the ways in which we see God's hand working in our lives on a daily basis - generally in the small and simple things.

oxox

Sunday, May 8, 2011

"There is no greater good in all the world than motherhood"

flowers at the Provo temple
 We are so thankful for our angel mothers. We wish we could be with them today and make them breakfast in bed and lighten their loads. We have been blessed to have mothers who know. We look forward to talking later today with the women who bore and raised us and exemplify these qualities:
Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind. - Jeffrey R. Holland
Our women are not incredible because they have managed to avoid the difficulties of life—quite the opposite. They are incredible because of the way they face the trials of life. Despite the challenges and tests life has to offer—from marriage or lack of marriage, children’s choices, poor health, lack of opportunities, and many other problems—they remain remarkably strong and immovable and true to the faith. Our sisters throughout the Church consistently “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.”  - Quentin L. Cook
Perhaps the reason we respond so universally to our mothers’ love is because it typifies the love of our Savior. As President Joseph F. Smith said, “The love of a true mother comes nearer [to] being like the love of God than any other kind of love” - Bradley D. Foster
There is no greater good in all the world than motherhood. The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation. - James E. Faust
Thank you, Mom Geneva and Mom Kathleen, for your faithful examples, your many sacrifices, your motherly love, and your strength of character. We love you both and appreciate all that you have done for both of us. We look up to you and hope that our choices honor both of you and your legacies.

Geneva, Lisa, Kathleen. March 27, 2010. Courtesy Mother Lode Photography.
Kathleen, Thomas, Geneva. March 27, 2010. Courtesy Mother Lode Photography.
oxoxo

Provo this past week has been experiencing some very warm weather. We have had our windows open overnight the past couple of days, and used the AC in the car yesterday. It looks as though summer is certainly on its way!

We went on a walk and the lighting on the mountains was awesome!
I am two weeks in to my eight-week spring courses. Going to school four hours a day, four days a week keeps me very busy, especially since I am also working 20 hours a week still and spending basically every waking moment of my "free time" working on Calculus. I'm glad to be getting that class out of the way right now, though, and it's fun to see how very different life on campus is during spring/summer, as opposed to fall/winter. It is unbelievably quiet, and my classes are so small. It is a nice change.

same walk. The warm weather has not melted all of the snow on the peaks yet.
Thomas is looking for full-time work and is finding all sorts of projects to work on around the house. He has had several interviews so far, and hopefully will be found the perfect candidate for a good job soon. He is honest, responsible, and a hard worker, and it fascinates me how "into" a project he can get. He is so bright!!

flowers at the Provo temple
We've been enjoying the weather and went on a couple of walks last week.

There are many strange sights in Provo. We just hope that this family has a second carseat for their baby...
I don't think this tree is quite reaching its potential...
Friday night we went out to the India Palace restaurant again. It was nice to get out of the house and away from our responsibilities for a couple hours!

my "favorite": chicken korma
rice
Thomas's "favorite": tandoori lamb
Yum!!!
Yesterday we attended the Provo temple. It was surprisingly quiet and we enjoyed serving there. The flowers on the grounds are blooming and look beautiful.

Thomas and Lisa at the temple
Happy Mothers' Day!

oxox

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Happy Belated International Workers' Day

And for those of us in the United States, a simple happy May Day will do. As such, this will be a brief post in order to allow much needed relaxation on our parts.

This last week has been one of great adjustment. Lisa started another term of school and is grinding through Calculus 2 like a champ. We helped some friends move (and got free clothes, a free couch, and free food in return), we had snow, we watched the latest CES Fireside by Sister Wixom (Primary general president of the Church, we got some books and an ancient trivia game from DI. We also went to J Dawgs again, and we're both hooked.

Oh, and we broke 1500 cities visiting our blogs (1537, to be exact) from 89 countries over 9147 visits. California itself had 153 cities that visited us.

Don't forget that you can get to our blogs by typing the following shortcuts while on our site (probably not compatible with Internet Explorer):
  • Lotsa Oxen Home: home
  • Lotsa Oxen Blog: oxen
  • Bradshaw Bistro: bistro
  • Wedding Page: wedding
  • Family Proclamations: family
  • MacTips: mac

More to come next week, along with photos!