Happy Easter from the Holley House

Here at the Holley House, we decided to keep Easter pretty low-key. We've talked about how we want to celebrate holidays, and this is probably going to be our holiday mantra throughout our lives. Much as we enjoy holidays, we want to enjoy them for the right reasons, and in the right way. I would reference this article in the Huffington Post, which resonated strongly with me. I'm also hoping to avoid the sight of our children running around in sugar-induced frenzies before dropping into a similarly induced sugar coma.

So, low-key. Today, that involved going to a movie with my parents and brother. Side note: my family loves going to movies on holidays. It started a number of years ago when we went to the movies one Thanksgiving, and developed into Thanksgiving and Christmas movie outings each year. This is something to which my husband strenuously objected while we were engaged, so we didn't go this past year. It seemed fitting that we would end up going today (acceptable, I suppose, since it's not Easter until tomorrow).

This evening we're dying eggs, which I haven't done for years. I'm really excited. That is, of course, if my husband wakes from a food coma, induced not by sugar, but by Chubby's:

The Chubby Challenge: one pound of fries, plus this massive sandwich, composed of three grilled cheese sandwiches, and three 1/3lb patties, plus toppings. All of which must be consumed in 15 minutes or less.

Did James do it? Yes, yes he did.

Tomorrow, I will playing in my capacity of ward choir pianist for the Easter program. A tender mercy this week: the choir is slated to sing two songs. I received the music for these four weeks ago. One of the songs, I picked up with relative ease. The other song has been causing me stress from the moment I first tried to play it. I have been practicing every day for the last month, and I still wasn't feeling anywhere close to competent. But this week, I received a call from our music coordinator, who was shortly able to find another woman in the ward to play this particular song. I was a tiny bit embarrassed--it is my calling, after all--but the relief that I felt was immense. So I will be playing one of the songs, a lovely Easter medley, and then relaxing! We'll be spending the evening with James' family, enjoying what I'm sure will be a marvelous Easter feast.

With all this said and done, I am excited to celebrate Easter for the truest reason of all: the death and resurrection of our Savior. A few days ago, I was trying to find a picture for my Facebook profile that would reflect the celebration I felt in my heart. I found a lot of images of the cross, or the tomb, or the risen Lord. Nothing felt quite right. And then I found this:

I know it's not an image specific to Easter, but for me, it became so. Because Jesus Christ is the light and life of the world. His sacrifice made it possible for me to live a righteous life. His Atonement will make it possible for me to live with my family, my beloved husband, forever. I cannot even begin to express my gratitude for this wondrous gift. But this weekend, my thoughts linger on that most Holy One.

I hope that you and yours have a beautiful and joyous Easter.

Addendum (added Monday)
We had a blast dyeing our Easter eggs! We just used one of the little dye kits you get at Walmart, and we used the "magic crayon" to make fun designs.

These are our eggs in their second life:

Happy Easter!

Busy weekend

Last Friday, this was my Facebook status:

"Busy weekend ahead: Donating blood, extra demo team practice for State next weekend, date night with my husband, endurance class, practicing ward choir accompaniment, Space Center test flight, breaking boards at the ward talent show, speaking in Sacrament meeting, and celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Make it so!"

Donating blood:
Turned into a fail for me--my iron was too low, so I wasn't allowed to donate. James donated, and as it turned out, the gal who drew his blood was the same who drew him last time he was there, over a year ago. We also met the mother of one of our students, who recognized James from her visits to our studio.

Practices:
We are competing this coming Saturday at the Utah State Championships for taekwondo, so our demonstration team has been having regular and extra practices in preparation. Always an adventure.

Date Night:
James and I went to Salt Lake on Friday night and had dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant called Eva. The food was delicious, but the portions were absurdly small, even knowing it was a "small plate" style of eating. The atmosphere was also not to our taste. So while we enjoyed ourselves, we will not be eating there again.

Endurance class:
We didn't actually make it. James hurt his shoulder last Tuesday, and still is recuperating. I have been having trouble sleeping for the last several days, and Friday night was particularly bad. I'm still having some difficulty with sleep, though it seems to be getting better.

Ward choir:
Last week was my first time as the ward choir pianist, and my choir director handed me the music at that first practice, so I got to sight-read through my first practice. Somewhat less than fun. So I spend the week (and now this week too!) practicing daily in the hopes of not embarrassing myself quite so much. This Sunday wasn't as bad. I have down the accompaniment for one of the songs. The other is still challenging me quite a bit, so fervent practice continues.

Space Center:
James had never been to the old space center in PG, so when I asked him if we could join some friends on a test flight for the new Discovery Space Center, he had no idea what to expect. He told me later that he'd thought it was going to be some educational (aka boring) thing. Little did he know that we would be play-acting a diplomatic-turned-battle mission aboard a spaceship. James was the "right wing officer" in charge of navigation, and I was the ship's ambassador. We had a blast!

Ward Talent Show:
Saturday night was our ward talent show. When they very first announced the talent show in our ward, about a month ago, James and I immediately decided that we wanted to participate. (We sat and planned out a board breaking routine during that Sacrament Meeting...) Our plans had to be altered when James hurt his shoulder last Tuesday, to take out the hand techniques James had been planning. So while our performance was not quite as epic as we had originally planned, we were nevertheless a huge hit with our ward. (For interested parties, James broke with a split kick, then I with a nadabon, then he with a nada-crescent, then I with a thrown ridge hand.)

Talks:
James and I spoke in our ward's Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. We were the only speakers. And we will admit to you that we prepared our talks on Saturday, as is typical. I spoke on "Our Journey on Earth" and used the metaphor of a roller-coaster ride that apparently stuck. James spoke on "The Influence of Angels" and used some very personal experiences to illustrate his points. Needless to say, after breaking boards at the ward talent show and then speaking on Sunday, we felt like celebrities in our ward!

St. Patty's:
Sunday night we spent at the Holley's to celebrate our sister Victoria's birthday as well as St. Patrick's Day. James' mother made corned beef and lamb for the occasion, both of which were amazing, along with all the accoutrements. Most of us then played "Dictionary" (what I understand to be a simplified version of Balderdash) and had a great time.



Now we are in major preparation mode for the State Championships this week. I'm not going to lie, it will be a relief once this tournament is over. James and I are both competing: both of us on the demo team, and both of us in our individual poomsae (forms) divisions. James will also be competing in weapons, with his nunchuku. We have also decided to compete together in a pairs poomsae division, which I am very excited about. We're hoping his shoulder will be in working shape by Saturday!

Adventures, Holley-Style

Last weekend I attended a referee seminar in Aurora, Colorado. The seminar itself was old hat, but getting there and back turned out to be rather perilous!

The seminar started at 10am on Sunday, so James and I left just after midnight. We had driven about an hour down Spanish Fork canyon, when my car broke down. Poor Roxanne! We couldn't get the car to restart, and after a little while, I decided to call my parents. Just so you know, I have the best parents on the face of the planet. They got up in the middle of the night and drove an hour to come rescue us. By the time they arrived, we'd gotten Roxanne started again, so they let us take their car, in the hopes of still making the seminar, and limped Roxanne back home. Best Parent Award!

We arrived just in time for my seminar. I spent eight hours reviewing referee knowledge, while James attended sacrament at a local ward, and spent most of the afternoon reading at a nearby park. When my seminar finished, we went out to dinner, then began our return journey. What had been a pleasant and mild trip into Colorado became a stressful and at times frightening journey home, as it snowed throughout our trek back across the Colorado mountains. This was succeeded by almost--very nearly--running out of gas just into Utah (yay for answered prayers!) and then snow all the way through Spanish Fork canyon. We made it home at about 3:30 in the morning, and needless to say, we were incredibly grateful to climb into bed!

Yesterday we competed at the Friendship Open, a martial arts tournament held at Pursuit of Mastery in West Jordan. James and I are both members of our school's demonstration team, Beyond Force. For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, demo team performances usually comprise a variety of martial arts elements, including kicks, self defense, tricks & flips, board breaking, weapons, and more. Demonstrations like this are supposed to show off the very best of martial arts--they're supposed to be cool. Our demo team has been around for three years now, which is still fairly young, though we are among the top-ranked teams in Utah.

That said, this was a so-so demo for us, at yesterday's tournament, due to a couple of things: first of all, we were missing a third of our team, including a couple of very crucial people for some of our best tricks. Second, we had two brand new team members, who auditioned and made the team last week. That means they'd just just just learned the choreography of the pieces they were in, which means things were still kind of rough. Auditions being last week also meant that we put this demo together in the last week. Needless to say, not our best demo ever. But still a decent job:


We hung around at the tournament most of the day, because adult black belts were the very last division to compete. *Sigh* But once our turn finally came, we had an excellent time of it. James competed first in forms. He did an excellent sport poomsae-style Keumgang. Because this particular school (and therefore most of the judges) don't follow this style, he was not highly scored. But I was incredibly proud of his performance, which will earn him much higher grades at the State Championships next weekend.

The female division went next. I unfortunately had to compete against my friend (and student) Kristen, but that sometimes cannot be helped. I performed Shipjin, the 5th degree black belt form, and one of my all-time favorites. If I do say so myself, it was an excellent Shipjin. But when I finished, I was heartily teased for slipping up during my introduction, when I almost forgot my new last name! James is still teasing me about it, and probably will for awhile to come.

Lastly came James' weapons form. He competed with a nunchuku form he created himself, which he has worked hard on. He received high marks, and ended up with a silver medal. And, as James would be sure to tell you, the guy who received the gold dropped his weapon (an enormous error) so should not have gotten as high of scores as he did. Oh well. James did remarkably well, and was very pleased with his performance.

Two Months

In advance of our two-month anniversary tomorrow (we'll be in Colorado), I would like to commemorate the amazingincrediblewonderfulness that is the marriage of James & Valerie Holley.

Here are some of the things that make our marriage great:
-Weekly date nights. Some recent ones include B&N, sushi, seeing Warm Bodies, laser tag at Trafalga, and more.
-Spending other quality time together. We are currently experiencing a Rock Band fixation.
-Continuing to get to know each other better every day.
-Going to church together. (I love having my jacket; it makes church much more better.)
-James does the dishes.
-Performing together.
-Going to the temple together. We went and did sealings this month, which was incredible.
-Teaching together. (James is my assistant instructor twice a week. I also teach Sport Poomsae, which James attends, and he teaches Advanced Weapons, which I attend.)
-Surprises. (For example, James randomly brought home roses yesterday, just to make me happy.)
-Other stuff.

Everything is not perfect. We have days when we are tired, or grumpy, or not feeling well. We sometimes say things to each other that hurt, or that are misunderstood. We still have plenty of things to figure out. To pretend otherwise would be just that--pretending.

But we are happy. We make a point every day (okay, like 27 times a day) to tell each other that we love one another. We plan time together. We talk. We try to be open and communicative. We make a sincere effort to bring the other person happiness. And it's working.

Bring on eternity, baby.