Chills, the good kind . .

Lion King the musical was a creative explosion. Yes, an explosion. I was overwhelmed and moved. The costumes, the singing, the dancing and the feeling created gave me chills song after song.

A few days later I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and found costumes from the show in their theater exhibit. Once again, chills. This time it was the mask, the beads, the fabric and the elegance. Seeing them up close was a whole new experience.

For my art class I have to sketch two pieces of art in every museum we visit in London. I sketched these costumes. As I sketched, I got to know every inch of the costume. And now I can say with more surety than I ever wanted that costume designer Julie Taymor knew exactly what she was doing and she did it well.

Brilliance, pure brilliance.

Nicknames . .

I've had a few nicknames in my day . .

Scotty, Scoot, Scooter, Cristofero, Christy (short for my last name - a missionary thing) but when I arrived in London I got a new nickname.

So, I'm studying abroad in London. I know, I know . . great way to avoid reality after graduation, right? Right! It was now or never, and it's now . . apparently. So let's sum it up. 35 girls. 6 guys (I'll explain later). 3 professors and their families. 2 brazilians (they cook and tidy up).

Back to the nickname thing. One of my professors has the most adorable four year old daughter and she calls me Scotch.

And now, so does everyone else.

Oh and that list of people - 61 in total. Yeah we all live together in the same house, but I'll save that for another post.

My dad is an artist . .

My dad always sketches a little something during commencement and/or convocation. I got one for high school graduation and I got one for college graduation. And I love them both the same.

I'm sure it keeps him awake but I will always cherish the messages, the inside jokes and the thought.

Thanks, Dad.

A jaunt down south . .

Just before winter semester ended my family spent the weekend in St. George to celebrate my graduation, Kade's birthday and just life in general. Not to mention, we like to hang out together - any excuse is a good excuse.

Lou had many moments of event planning genius including the graduation cap desserts. How sweet are those?! I’m still dreaming about the trays of peanut butter bars she made (my personal favorite).

Among eating, golfing and hiking, we even made a little time for a game of speed and dodgeball in the backyard. Dodgeball gets even better after elementary school, especially when you hear adult participants say things like, “let’s take out the little kids first, and then we’ll worry about the adults” or “oh my gosh, I just hit my baby with the ball.”

Even though my siblings have mortgages and kids of their own, we love to play the same old games and laugh about the same old things.

Some things never change. Thank goodness.

Fashionista from the start . .

A few weeks ago The Sartorialist blog made a call for submissions of vintage photos. I submitted this photo of Grandma Lexie. Even if it doesn’t make their blog, it’s going to make it onto mine.

This was Grandma Lexie’s junior prom. She went to show her grandmother her dress just before the dance with my Grandpa Ken.

I'm sure it was the beautiful dress, the bows and the red knit gloves that made them fall in love.

An introduction I'll never forget . .

Jamie sure knows how to make someone feel like a million bucks. I arrived a little late to the Best Buddies talent show yesterday and, he being the great emcee that he is, introduced me as I walked in. His enthusiasm was overcoming - I have never felt more welcomed.

I met Jamie in the Center for Service and Learning at BYU where he volunteers over 900 hours each year. Before coming to the Center almost four years ago, Jamie served at the Orem City Library and has completed church service missions at the Bean Museum and Museum of Art at BYU.

Jamie’s hard work to help student volunteers certainly does not go unnoticed. He is the data analyst; a task that requires hours of work with financial forms that he makes sure are accurate. I must admit that I have purposely neglected to sign forms just so he would call and leave a message informing me of my error. Jamie leaves the best messages.

Last school year as I was serving as the Center’s event director, Jamie was an answer to my prayers. I was really sick with the flu the night before an event I was planning for more than one hundred of our community partners. At nearly 10:00 p.m. as I laid on the sofa thinking about how I could possibly get everything done in my condition, I said a silent prayer that somehow I could prepare for the event the next morning. Within minutes, I received a call from Jamie Taylor asking if he could take the early bus to arrive early the next day and help me get ready for the Community Partner Luncheon.

Jamie will always serve others more than we can serve him.

We’re horse people, promise . .

This past weekend we had to put Fiddle down. We were all sad to lose another horse and I sincerely think my dad was deep in mourning. He lost several thousand dollars, but more than anything, he lost a dear friend.

My friend, Casey, wrote this poem in memory of Fiddle.

“You have lost a dear friend,
In Fiddle your horse, his life did end.
He followed the path of other horses
on the Christofferson Place,
And now he’s in a deep hole with
dirt covering his face.
No longer can the family jump onto
his back and fly.
For Fiddle is now chasing
white calves in the sky!”

*Note: Fiddle was a girl. And I’ll explain the white calf thing sometime.

After conference on Sunday we sat around and talked about all of our horse memories – the good and the bad.

This is a list of the horses that have passed away under our care.

Disclaimer: I just want you to know that we didn’t name any of them ourselves.

• The horse that lost an eye (none of us could remember his name, sad but true).

• Chips

• Buzz Saw

• Trail Buster

• Rosy

• Two Bay

• Funny

• Annie

• Buck

• Cody

• And most recently, Fiddle.

We enjoyed basking in the memories of our long lost friends, but after the list was made my dad sighed and said, “Next time I’m getting a mountain bike.”