Our New Friends and a New Venture

Last July we welcomed our new friends, an Afghani refugee family, to America. The past 7 months have been one of the greatest blessings of our life. It has been amazing to get to know them and recently we have begun work on a project to help this family to use their skills and talents to become self-reliant.

Turning lemons into lemonade. When their power was shut off for several days in October because of a mix up with their bills we spent a fun evening eating donuts by lantern light. 

At Christmas time we went with our volunteer group and our family downtown to see the lights at Temple Square.

As we were leaving Temple Square Mike explained to them that the buildings we'd visited, the temple and the tabernacle, were built by refugees many years ago when they settled here.

With no men to help provide for this large family, we knew it would be a more difficult challenge for them to support their family. While the oldest daughter of the family was able to get a part time job at Walmart, the mother was not having any luck finding employment because her English was progressing so slowly. As we came to know the family more, we learned that the mother and her oldest daughters are highly skilled seamstresses. The mother was so skilled she could make a dress from just looking at a picture and getting some measurements. When we discovered this - Mike hatched an idea.

One thing we've learned over the course of Jessie's high school experience is how hard it can be to find suitable dresses for dances. Especially if you want something unique and/or something modest. What if we found a way to link her skill with the demand for dresses that we see. We wondered if it could work. We posed the idea to the family, who enthusiastically agreed. We wondered how they would be able to acquire the quality machines that they would need if they were to really make this work. We wondered how best to structure our venture. As we worked these things through in our minds and made it a matter of prayer,  things began coming together, the solutions presented themselves and the way opened up.

Our first step was to ask them to make a dress for Jessie, and the daughter of some friends who were willing to join us in the venture. The only machine they had to make the dresses was one from Costco that was generously gifted by my old friend, Wendy. Not a professional machine, but in the hands of a master...

Here they are adjusting the sleeve on the dress they made for our friends' daughter

Part way through their work on Jessie's dress an Afghani man, a neighbor and friend, took it upon himself to purchase a professional grade machine for them with the understanding that they would just pay him back as they were able, without any time frame attached. He has become one of our best resources, showing up to translate complex ideas, facilitating, researching and helping us stay connected. A humble, quiet man - here in the U.S. because he was an aid to American troops in  Afghanistan.

Here they are at work on their new beautiful Juki machine

With those first few dresses under our belt we put the word out that our refugee friends were making dresses and the first real orders came in. We're still working out our process and streamlining as best we can for now, but I think we're onto something. We have felt guided every step of the way.

We are calling our new venture, "Panah" - which means "refuge" in Dahri (their language). We hope to move things forward enough to help employ other refugee women, all here without husbands, to be able to support their families.

Our love for them grows. I jokingly call the mother my little sister, because she is a year younger than me, but she is my elder in terms of experience and strength.  

I'll keep you posted.

Something Virtuous, Lovely and of Good Report and Praiseworthy

Recently my old friend Katie posted about her daughter appearing in an Xfinity commercial featuring a new technology to help visually impaired people navigate in finding movies to watch. Their daughter Emily has been blind since birth. When Katie first sent the link I was curious about what technology could help the blind watch movies...and I wanted to see what part Emily would play in all this. I had no idea that her story and her imagination would be the whole focus of the project -- and the lengths that they went to to bring her vision to life. It was beautiful. I wanted to share it.

Apparently it aired tonight during the Oscars.




They also made a short documentary, narrated by Robert Redford, of the making of Emily's Oz.






Also, the Grove's did an interview this week on the Today show. I love that I got to see the whole family in this one. They are some of our favorite people and they moved out of state several years ago so we haven't had much opportunity to see them.



Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I love this so much. I been smiling and smiling. There is good in the world. Thanks Katie and Tyler - we love you guys! And well done Emily...what a personality!
:)

A Different Sort of Hike

Mike had been telling me about this place he'd heard about in the Unita's recently. A place where people have been building fairy houses in the woods for years. We wanted to go check it out. We finally carved out the time on Saturday (I insisted - overriding all objections - even if it was an hour's drive and it was already 3:30 PM). 

What a strange place it is. Just about a half mile walk from the turn-out on the Mirror Lake Highway you come into this place - maybe an acre or two of people's whimsical creations. Organic in a non-organic kind of way. Whatever people have thought up. Some of it is just super tacky, some of it clever, some magical. The kids LOVED exploring it! They want to make one. 

This goes down as one of my favorite pictures of ALL TIME.

Crossing the stream on the way in. Check out Tillman's awesome attitude spelled out in his expression. (It changed dramatically a few minutes later as he fell under the spell of the Fairy Forest.)

Definitely a colorful place

 In my opinion, there were too many brightly painted rocks. I picture a fairy forest as a more subtly magical place. But we did have a few favorite painted rocks. 

The Joseph Smith quote

For you, Casey and Helen

The happy rock

 Other stuff we liked...

Love this picture of the little boys. Sully standing there in  his "Chill I got this Bro" shirt and Abner running at him with a lance.  Ha ha ha. 

Mini Stonehenge

Cleverly painted Moose stick

Don't know what this is -- but somebody took a lot of time welding it together -- so there you go.

After our stroll through the Fairy Forest we headed to Bruges  for dinner, and then, because we were close, we stopped at the Millcreek Sullivan's for a visit. We interrupted bed time, but Casey and Helen were nice to let the kids come out to play for a while anyway.  

Noble and the other Noble (Noble Ezekiel Roanhorse) having a friendly futbol match in the back yard.

That was fun.

An Evening in the Splash Lab

Entering the Splash Lab...or "Stlash Lab"

 Last week we met up with some of our old  friends from BHS days. Our friend Tadd is the creator of the Splash Lab at BYU, and after getting together for the first time in years last spring, we all decided we would meet there next.

True to his personality, Tadd has fashioned the perfect career for himself in the Department of Engineering at BYU. He and a group of his grad students come up with cool stuff to photograph at extreme high speed (one of his cameras alone cost about as mush as a house...and takes like 1 million frames PER SECOND), and then study the dynamics. While the things they discover are undoubtedly useful in the real world (like how to engineer better toilets for reducing splash back :), or better designs for the Department of Defense), I am convinced that people (including all of their corporate sponsors) really just love Tadd. Everyone does. He's just one of those people. He's made a bit of a name for himself and his lab with his videos featured on NPR - Science Friday, BBC, CNN, NBC, local new outlets...and who knows what-all. Like I said, he's just one of those people that other people want to be around, because there's always sure to be something fun going on. Julie, his wife/my second cousin, says she just wishes he got paid according to his popularity. ha ha  ha ha. Don't we all, Julie... ha ha ha...

We took Noble, because we had a suspicion that Noble would find a kindred spirit in Tadd. I think we were correct in our hunch.

Old friends, Jenn and Ang.  Capturing the magic.

After one of our first experiments, watching the instant replay. Look at the joy on Noble's face!

Mike telling a story to the crowd while Tadd sets up for the shot.

Dry ice in water

Tadd had messaged everyone ahead of time about bringing in things they wanted to see filmed at high speed. I couldn't think of anything, but luckily my friend Jenn came through for us, bringing in a bag of fire crackers and a GI Joe guy. Tadd also had Julie bring in some dry ice. After that it was just up to our imaginations to determine what crazy stunts we would try.

Josh on bubble blowing duty with the dry ice, Tadd describing the change in light refraction to us.

We filmed bubbles popping, and Tadd explained the strange way that light refracts and then is absorbed right before it pops. We filmed dry ice in water, a fire cracker exploding, then we filmed a fire cracker exploding in water (thanks to Jenn's husband, Josh for engineering that tricky feat). The pinnacle moment of the evening came when we pulled out all the stops, strapped a couple of fire crackers to the GI Joe, lit the fuse and then dropped him in water. We thought for a moment that the fuse had been extinguished in the water, but then "BOOM!" The entire beaker of water exploded, reminiscent of the crazy story Tadd had just finished telling us about the time he had accidentally blown up a 100 gallon tank of water on the upper floors of a building at MIT where he had been doing research, and flooded the floors below. Glad I wasn't there for that one. ha ha ha.
After the dust settled in the Splash Lab, Tadd's first response was to turn to Noble who was holding the camera trigger and yell, "Did you get it?!" And as soon as Noble replied that he had, Tadd let out a triumphant, "YES!"

Duck and cover, waiting for the fire cracker to blow.

GI Joe survived without a scratch (Clark's kids got to take him home as a souvenir), and the footage was incredible! We watched it again and again, and then couldn't stop laughing and talking about how awesome it all was as we wiped up the water and shards of glass. (Sorry again Tadd about the beaker...)

Clark, Noble and Mike poised for the explosion.

The video file was way too big to put on a jump drive to bring home, so Tadd said he'd put it up on the website. I'll share that when it's up. In the meantime... this will give you an idea of how much fun we had.

We capped off our fun in the lab by using physics to break glass bottles with the palm of our hands (Or a rubber mallet if you weren't tough enough...which was everyone except Tadd who has had a lot of practice. You should have seen the look of disgust he gave me after I gave my bottle a dainty tap. ha ha ha ha. I was afraid it would hurt.). Tadd explained how cavitation works to break the bottle.

Here we are posing after the fun. As I pulled this photo up in my email (from Josh's phone)  I noticed that it shows some of the ceiling tiles Tadd told us that he managed to pull out before, in his words, "I was caught" in an impulsive effort to redecorate the Splash Lab. Yet ANOTHER hilarious story.

After all the science fun, we drove over to Mountain West Burrito for dinner. Julie had to leave to get home to a sick child, and we wish that Clark's wife, Juli (another high school friend) could have been there, along with several others. But we had an unforgettable time. At dinner we laughed till we cried. I miss that. I love these guys. 

On the way home Noble was delighted to hear that he is related distantly, by marriage (Juli = my second cousin on my mom's side) to Tadd, his new hero. 

Out of the quiet in the back seat he said, "Can we do that again.....ALL THE TIME?" 

Mike and I smiled to ourselves. That was cool.

A Book Review: Unbroken

Some of you may have heard about this one. I was hearing great things about it, so I added it to my kindle this past week. I could barely put it down for the 3 days it took me to read it. I stayed up until 2:00 this morning / last night finishing it, and decided I had to blog about it right away. I give it 5 stars. In fact, this may have become my new all-time favorite book.  I love stories of human triumph. This one is unsurpassed. In the same spirit as Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (though in the form of an AMAZING story and less of an analysis), this book shows the depths of human endurance and the POWER of forgiveness and love. It's the story of an American Olympic distance runner, Louis Zamperini, who was easily on track to be the fastest miler in history up to that point, when the world descended into war. His journey and the horrors he and others experienced over the next several years is unbelievable. It's got just about everything: Running, the Olympics, Hitler (up close), air battles, a particularly beautiful "Joe vs. The Volcano" kind of  moment, angels, Japanese POW camps, Billy Graham, skateboarding... I won't spoil anything for you here, in case some of you wanted to read it. But I have to say that my admiration for "the greatest generation" and my own determination to live in gratitude and forgiveness have increased.
The author (of Seabiscuit fame) is an incredible story-teller. Fair warning: the descriptions of violence and degradation in the POW camps is graphic, and really tough to read. But the redemption of a human soul is so beautiful and inspiring I was brought to happy tears. This guy is one of my new heroes.

Life is beautiful

Louie Zamperini, who took up skateboarding in his 70's, here at 81

John Stockton is So Cool

How can you top this guy? I saw this interview today in the news, on the occasion of his being inducted (along with Karl Malone) into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame (I didn't even know there was such a thing). If you have the patience to watch the whole 7 minutes you'll get to see the part when they ask him if he wants to get into coaching in the NBA, now that his kids are getting older. He responds that he still has kids at home, that 5 of his 6 kids are still playing ball, and he doesn't want to miss their experiences for anything. Maybe later he'll coach. Go, John.

For those of you who remember my John Stockton-themed room growing up, you have to admit, he was a quality role model. More people should be like John Stockton. (Too bad I don't have all those posters anymore.)

6 and 1

That's Noble's team's record for the season so far. They are now 4 and 0 in division play, and locked as first seed for the playoffs coming up in a few weeks.

(Photo credits: #87's mom)

Yesterday they played Bountiful, the toughest team they will play in their division. They won. It was a bit of a fight, but they put up three more touchdowns than Bountiful, and....

...this awesome safety (Noble, #20 coming in on the tackle).

I just love this picture of #35 beating his helmet triumphantly after the safety. He was SO stoked.

My dad kept telling me that I was getting a little "excited"...I can't help it. The kids are so fun to watch.

Mike snapped this great shot of Noble at nose guard.

High fives. Another great game, guys. (I, for one, am having a blast.)

And, as a special treat, footage of the team's pre-game ritual: Dance/Hit/Tag...or whatever you want to call it. Enjoy.

(The best part in this first one is when Noble turns to shush me after I cheered....hahhahaha...)

MVI 5935 from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

...And Noble's rendition of the Macarena to "Eye of the Tiger"...

MVI 5937 from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

This is so fun.

Night Boarding Provo Canyon

Mike's brother, Tim, finished up his optometry residency here in UT this past week. But before he left town we decided to have one last hoorah. Tim was telling me about riding Provo Canyon on a couple of massive long boards he and a friend put together themselves some years back. He promised that it was my speed, i.e., not too fast and under control - the way mom's like it. I was all over that.

Friday Mike spent a long day up at East Canyon Reservoir with the youth from church - (his new assignment is with the young men) getting beat up on tubes, and wake boarding. Then there was Noble's football practice and a scrimmage in the evening. Afterward Mike and I drove south and met Tim for dinner and a lovely night ride down Provo Canyon.

Dinner at Mountain West Burrito with Tim

We dropped one car at the bottom of the Provo Canyon trail, and then drove in the other several more miles up canyon to Vivian Park (good thing Tim had that Ozzy Osbourne CD playing in his car to get us amped up for the ride - ha ha ha). There was no moon, so it would have been a good idea to have brought head lamps. Instead we tried to stick to the white painted line that we could see down the middle of the paved trail. That worked pretty well except when we got under really thick canopies of trees where it was even too dark to see the line. It got a little exciting when we couldn't see anything at all. ha ha...Tim and I rode Tim's awesome homemade boards mostly luge-style or seated. Mike rode a regular long board, and they tend to wobble at high speed especially (apparently) if you try to sit.  Mike was awesome to ride upright, blind and on wobbly trucks.  His was the more dangerous option, so he wore a helmet and gloves, which was prudent, even though we all had a good laugh that he was the only one all decked out in protective gear. 

Isn't that board a beast?! SO much FUN.

What a beautiful ride! It lasted at least an hour. Wow.  Stars. Crickets. Hair whipping in the night air. Fire flies. Quiet except for the sounds of nature and ball bearings. It smelled so good. You know that perfect summer night smell? Mountains. River. Ahhhhhh. Therapy. I'm up for that again any time. Gracias, Tim.

Stuff kids do in summer

The Spy Club I started with my younger sibs way back in 1985, Victoria, Texas - has been reincarnated recently (my mother will be delighted to hear). I suggested it as imaginative play one day earlier in the summer when Grace said she was bored. She took that idea and RAN WITH IT. 

She has gone way above and beyond.

They've had a fund raiser (lemonade stand where they made BANK).

They've purchased accessories at the dollar store with said funds.

They have a secret hide out.

Grace checked out several books from the library on spy techniques for kids - which they all studied THOROUGHLY.

And today they printed club t-shirts, their own design, using freezer paper stenciling.

I found some COOL glittery green fabric paint. I love how they turned out.

Aren't they awesome?

Tillman and a buddy built a tent with deck chairs - taking cover today as the thunder storm came in.

And it looks like we've taken in another sad creature for rehabilitation. Noble and company brought home this dove with a broken wing this afternoon. And even though the last time we tried to save a bird, it didn't go so well, I couldn't say no. It currently lives in Jupiter's travel kennel in the garage - which Noble and his friends redecorated nicely. Noble scavenged some bird feed from somewhere in our garage. Last time I looked in she seemed to be loving her little resort vacation. We'll see if she recovers or not.

They have dubbed her "DEN" - an acronym using the first letters of their names. It is written on the top of the kennel.

Pluto strolling past uninterested.

Summer is kids with freedom. And that's magic.