We're all a little Nutty

I have been thinking lately about people that struggle with "singleness," especially within the LDS culture where so much focus is on the family.  One thing I read hit particularly close to home.  It was a memoir that shared journal entries and experiences from age 10 to 32.  Except for the names being different, those journal entries sounded a lot like mine.  It's embarrassing to admit!  I was so preoccupied with wanting to be accepted and loved that I swooned invisibly over the boys in my life that I was sure I was destined to marry -- who had no idea that I existed or felt the way I did.  Maybe being invisible kept me out of trouble.  Three cheers for the protection of invisibility! Despite the lack of attention paid to me by any male in my younger years, I still set my sights high.  My list of what characteristics my dream man would have included all the basics:  tall, dark, handsome, spiritual, funny, treats me like a queen, etc. ...

We escaped to sunny (?) San Diego for a week and made quite a few memories.  Here are some highlights: First we met my brother in Mesquite (as he was driving north and we were headed south) so that we could finally meet his new baby. We enjoyed the Spanish village art shops on Sunday afternoon. We convinced the kids NOT to jump off "suicide bridge." My parents met up with us, unaware that they might be in danger in our company. Lizzie and Ian amused people standing around them as they repeatedly tried to pet a fish in the pond in front of the botany building in Balboa Park.  In the rain. Isn't that gorgeous?  This is one of my favorite locations in San Diego. Ian got kissed by a bird. And Dillon, Lizzie and Lee got to hold one. Lizzie was selected as a soldier at the Mormon Battalion visitor's center.  I imagine that missionary has a hard time being taken seriously with those demonic eyes... We tried to show Ian that boogie boarding was fu...