NeNe Sticks

This morning I got a text from my mom informing me that my Grandma Hunt's sister, Jeannine, had passed away. Aunt NeNe was a strong woman who often fought against the odds and won. Whether it was raising two children alone during the '50s and '60s when it wasn't exactly the norm, or fighting cancer and living years after many doctors predicted she would. Today, that cancer finally got the best of her, but she didn't go down without a fight.

She remained ever faithful in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and will always be an example to me of dedicated service and enduring to the end.

I will never forget the times spent with her at my Gp's cabin. She and I would often share the upstairs bedroom, and although we never 'chatted it up like schoolgirls', I always felt special being with her. One night she told me about how her name is spelled differently on her birth certificate, but that she had always spelled Jeannine with two N's so that's how she kept it.

My brothers and I loved going to visit her in St. George on our way home to Las Vegas from school. We would visit her at her home where she was always so hospitable and glad to see us there. We'd look at her old pictures and she would show us the most recent ones of her grandkids and great grandkids, she was so proud of them. In the most recent years we visited her at a hospital in St. George. She was so feisty with the doctors it was almost laughable, but it was that same personality that most likely kept her with us for so long. The last year of her life she lived in Missouri to be closer to her immediate family. I hope it was better for her, but we certainly missed having her close to us here. Although my grandma's children and grandchildren weren't her closest family, she was always an important part of our lives. We will miss you NeNe Sticks!

Until we meet again...

Songs that mean something to me - Part 1

Ok, I've always kind of liked the song Who I Am, by Jessica Andrews. Not because of any particularly genius tune or catchiness, but because I really like the words. It talks about the important things in life; about being confident in yourself; about having a family that loves you and supports you.

There have been times after high school that I felt a little sad/mad at myself that I didn't play sports in college, or even try. I felt like I was wasting my talent. More importantly, at least in my mind, I felt like I was disappointing my parents. They had spent so much time and money giving me opportunities to play sports at the highest level I wanted to play at, and here I was..wasting it. Not even using that talent to help pay for college.

But my dad, what a good guy, simply told me once that it was worth every penny to see me happy, doing the things I wanted to do. He also said that it was sports who helped shape me into the person I am today. Sports can teach young people how to work hard for something they want, how to practice, how to work as a team, respect authorities, listen to directions, and to be graceful in winning as well as losing.

Here are some of the lyrics to the song:

If I live to be a hundred
And never see the seven wonders
That'll be alright
If I don't make it to the big leagues
If I never win a grammy
I'm gonna be just fine
'cause I know exactly who I am

So when I make a big mistake
When I fall flat on my face
I know I'll be alright
Should my tender heart be broken
I will cry those teardrops knowin'
I will be just fine
'cause nothin' changes who I am

I am [Billie Lea's] granddaughter
The spitting image of my father
And when the day is done
My momma's still my biggest fan
Sometimes I'm clueless and I'm clumsy
But I've got friends that love me
And they know just where I stand
Its all a part of me
And that's who I am

It's true, I do look a lot like my father. And as far as my biggest fan? Just ask the woman who allowed her car to transform into a locker room; the one who put on her taxi cap nearly every day to make sure I was at every practice; and who attended almost every game I ever played in. I had been playing hockey for about 2 years before my parents (and grandpa) were finally able to watch me play a couple weeks ago. I think it killed them to hear me talk about it, especially with it being so new, and not be able to come watch me play.

I love you mom and dad, thanks for everything!

A night with Jan Shipps

Last Friday night my Bishop and his wife invited me to their house to have dinner with them and their special guest, Jan Shipps. I had read her first major book, called Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition, for a couple of classes at BYU as well as some of her articles. She also helped edit the Journals of William E. McLellin which I used extensively for the John Johnson Home Site Guide I helped with. She has been president of the Mormon History Association and gave a paper on Mormonism at a conference commemorating, Joseph Smith, Jr., held at the Library of Congress in 2005.

Her newest book is entitled Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years among the Mormons. Puzzled by that last title? Here's the kicker -- Jan Shipps is not a Mormon. She is actually a lifelong Methodist, but during the 1950s she lived briefly in Logan, Utah. There she became fascinated with the Mormons - their religion, culture, and place within the greater American religious context. She never looked back. She has been studying the Mormons ever since.

Her husband Tony also came to dinner as well as other historians John Hamer and Jean Addams. When I was first introduced to John I knew I recognized his name from somewhere. My bishop then told me he has been studying all the Mormon schismatic groups which jogged my memory. I remembered him as the author of this book:

The group of us talked a little before dinner - of course about church history topics. Jean has studied the Hedrickite Church (or he Church of Christ (Temple Lot)) so we talked a little about them. We covered everything from the soon to be non-existent office of church patriarch, to Emma Smith, to Utah mining.



It was definitely a different experience talking about church practices, offices, priesthood, and history with people who don't believe in the faith, yet most likely know more about these topics than 99% of church members. It was also a little out of the ordinary to have to distinguish which church I was talking about with each comment. LDS? FLDS? RLDS? Hedrickites?


They were all so sweet and fun to talk to. At dinner John asked me what topics I'm interested in studying and encouraged me to write a paper and attend the John Whitmer Historical Association meeting this year. He's actually one of their Exec. Directors and helped start their new press. Jan Shipps asked me what my plans were for more schooling. I must admit I felt a little sheepish not really knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I mentioned possibly getting a masters degree in Library Science and Archives. At this Jan's husband, Tony, spoke up. He has an MLIS degree and worked in libraries for years. I told him I wasn't sure about it because I didn't want to work in a public library. He gave some really good advice, and put me in my place, when he told me, "Well, you don't always get to do what you want." Very true. Sis. Marsh and Jan then encouraged me to maybe take some classes at the U.

After dinner Jeremy and I went into the living room with Jan and her dog, Mr. Darcy :). We talked for probably an hour and a half, just the three of us. She told us about how she got into studying the Mormons, where she went to school, how she paid for school, her family, all the odd jobs she has had, etc. She was very, very interesting to talk to. I even got her to sign my book.

I am so grateful to Sis. Marsh for inviting to me this dinner and giving me the once in a lifetime opportunity to associate with such great Mormon historians in such a close and intimate setting.

My little mishap

So back in May (Tuesday, the 19th to be exact) I went to our ward softball practice like normal and after warming up I took my usual spot in left field (cause that's where you get the most action). Paul was up to bat and the second hit of the night came to me. I ran hard to the left and dove for it.

Well...

To my extreme satisfaction and I'm sure the pride of my parents and maybe some of my friends, I caught the ball...but...rather than my glove sliding along the ground after the catch like normal, my glove hand completely caught on the ground and I kind of awkwardly rolled over it. I felt a pop or at least something definitely not normal. I ripped my glove off, with the ball still in it, and started walking off the field. My friends Rachel and Ben came right over and looked at it. I could already start to see a bulge right on top of my hand. Rachel did some little tests and we decided we should definitely go to the quick care.

So Ben and Rachel took me to the Instacare where they said it was definitely broken (and the bulge was the bone sticking up, ew). The doctor wrapped it in a splint and told me to go see an orthopedic specialist because I would probably need surgery. Luckily though, when I went to the orthopedic surgeon a couple days later he said the bone was still in good alignment (in fact if you look at the xray of the top of my hand you almost can't tell it's broken) and all the ligaments and everything intact so no surgery was needed. Phew.

After the instacare Ben and Rachel and I ran around trying to find an open pharmacy and finally found one after 3 tries.

The funniest part though? As we were driving back to the field Rachel got a call, the rest of the softball group was locked inside the field! It was kind of funny telling them about my hand with a fence in between us until a guy came with the key to let them out.

Here are a couple of the x rays...



So I had to wear this thing for a while.



Here's what it looked like, although I forgot to take pictures until a couple weeks after it happened. So this is the no-so-swollen version.



The doctor specifically told me NOT to play sports for 2 months. Ya, that ain't gonna happen. Besides my broken pinky in kindergarten (playing football mind you) this is the first injury I've ever had. I've never had to sit out of a single game because of an injury...ever. In fact, when I told BJ I had broken my hand the first thing he said to me was, "Well you're about due." No sympathy, no nothin' :).

My friends took me to a movie the next night so I wouldn't try to play soccer with the ward. I honestly have the best friends in the world, from Ben and Rachel dropping everything to take me to the Instacare, to Jamen being at my house when I got home that night to ask how I was doing, to Paul being my "escort" to the movie so I didn't have to drive, to a bunch of texts asking how what happened and how the team was really going to be hurting without me, etc, etc. My friends are the best!!

Oh, one more funny thing. Two days after I broke my hand, a group of friends went to Cafe Rio. Well Brian S. showed up and he was wearing the same kind of splint that I had on. We found out that he had broken his hand in pretty much the same place (except his was on the ring finger, mine the middle), on the same day, at almost the same time of night!! Crazy.


It was kind of nice not being the only gimp at softball, batting one-handed and playing Jim Abbott style in the field (I put the glove on my right hand to catch the ball, then I would take the glove off, put it under my other arm, take the ball out and throw with my right hand). It was pretty awesome but I'm definitely glad to be able to play normally again. The bone is still sticking up a little bit so you can see the bump but it doesn't really hurt at all anymore.

So that was my little summer adventure.

p.s. The hardest thing for me to do with a broken hand? Put my dang hair in a ponytail, that hurt more than anything!

Trips

Logandale/Lake Mead/Family Reunion/Grandpa's Cabin
At the end of May we had a Hunt family reunion in Bunkerville, NV. Luckily Preston, BJ, and I were able to get off work (actually I was in between jobs, more details to come) so we were able to go down on Thursday night to spend more time down there. I drove down to Provo, then we took Preston's car down to Cedar City where BJ was living for about a month while he was doing a pharmacy rotation. We stayed the night in Cedar City then drove to Logandale in the morning.

LAKE MEAD

Preston wakeboarding

WyWy found a good place to nap :)











Aunt Megan and Ben














The wakeboarders













The other boat














Gm and Gp Hunt

FERLIN HUNT FAMILY REUNION (Bunkerville, NV)

The Bunkerville Chapel

Ferlin and Verda Hunt

Story time!


Chelseigh and Ethan with the awesome t-shirts they made


Gm Julia and I, she just turned 91 yrs old!

Bunkerville Cemetery

Some of the cousins (front: Chelseigh, Wyatt, Marissa.
Middle: Mackae, Mallory, me. Back: Jake, Preston, BJ)
So as we left the cemetery I decided to go in my Uncle Adam's car, and not 5 minutes later we get a call that my parents had a little...mishap. Somebody made a left turn right into them as they were pulling into a gas station.

Preston talking to the cops

I'm thinking this worked out though because now they have this...

Pretty sweet car if you ask me.

The Cabin
The fishermenPreston's catchMy grandpa'sMmm, mm Dutch oven

St. George
A couple weeks after the family reunion some friends and I took a trip down to St. George for the weekend. Paul's grandma and grandpa live on a golf course down there and they wanted some free golf :). We had a pretty big group so some stayed at Paul's gm's place while the rest of us stayed at Rachel and Brian's gm's house on the other side of the city. It was such a fun, relaxing weekend.

Views from Paul's grandparents house...so beautiful!!

The boys found a big gila monster in the backyard and of course HAD to play with it

Ely
The next week Preston was talking to our cousin Sheena. She and her husband Joe had decided to join the church and she wanted to invite us to the baptism! BJ couldn't get off work on such short notice but Preston and I drove the 4+ hours out to Ely for the occasion.

It was such a good feeling to be there with my family (Gp and Gm Hunt, Uncle Andy, Aunt Paula, Marissa and Jake) and see another member of the family, someone I love so much, take that important step and be baptized. After the baptism we went to dinner together, then went and saw Sheena's house which I've never been too before. Preston and I then turned around and went straight back to SLC. On the drive home it was pitch black, as in no sign of life for at least 30 miles around. It was actually pretty fun driving in the dark...the only ones on the road...if we break down...or eaten by a bear... .... ... there's no one to hear us scream. Aaaaahhhh!!

I'M BACK!!!

Well friends, after a long...long hiatus from blogging I am now back and intend to continue pursuing my life's goal of boring you all with pointless stories about my life with full vigor.

I'll probably spend the next week or so just trying to catch you up on what I've been doing for the last, oh, 4+ months since I last wrote. Enjoy!