Congratulations to Rebecca Carlson!by Angie
27 Jan 2008
9:01 pm2
As promised (though, rather later than promised), Rebecca finally receives her prize for successfully identifying the song and album that are the source of our very appropriate blog tag-line. What is the amazing prize? Why, a post on our fascinating and exiting new blog, with readers across the country, dedicated entirely to my amazing sister-in-law! So, here goes…
Rebecca J. Carlson is the oldest of six children born to Roger and Kathy Hoffman. With an airline pilot and a marine biologist turned super-mom for parents, Becka had adventure and creativity stamped on her destiny in bold type. She spent her childhood in Utah, Arizona, and Texas. Later, she pursued scientific studies at Brigham Young University, where she met a brilliant mathematician named Russel Carlson. It didn’t take long for Physics and Math to notice each other and, during Becka’s Senior year at BYU, they were married in the Portland LDS Temple. Together, they’ve taught ballroom dance classes, written and published The Journal of Extraneous Scientific Topics (JEST), and moved from Utah to Oregon, back to Utah, then to Arizona, and finally to their current home in Nevada.
Rebecca & Russel spend a significant portion of their time raising their five children. This generally includes a conglomeration of homeschooling, music lessons, science projects, family prayers, various pets, and wholesome recreational activities. Becka keeps a running commentary of these adventures on her blog, “And Now, For My Next Trick…“. She plays the harp, and has even built several of them herself. She is an avid reader, and often takes the time to write insightful reviews on what she reads. Her literary interests have prompted her to experiment with her own authorship, and she is currently attempting to publish a young adult novel titled, “Society of Peregrines, Book One: The Key to the Corridor.”
Here are a few things her family members have said about her:
“I could not have hand-picked anyone better than this remarkable young woman to be the “ring-leader” of my children! She has been a constant source of inspiration, creativity, and fun to our whole family.” – kathy
“Rebecca is amazingly creative, a problem-solver and a natural leader. She’s intelligent yet sensitive, scientific yet spiritual, talented yet humble.” – russel
“She is a brilliant person – a genius when it comes to science and physics and all that. She’s an inspiration to me artistically, and has been the trail-blazer in my family.” – jon
“(intelligence / n(projects)) + (courage (action + vision)) + (mom-of-the-year x 5) = Rebecca”
We love you, Rebecca! Hope you like your prize 🙂
Curious about our tag line?by Angie
17 Jan 2008
8:01 am8
Several people have asked me where the quote below our blog title comes from. Here are a few hints, and if anyone knows the answer, you win a prize! Ok, well, the first person to submit the correct answer in the comments of to this post will win the prize 🙂 Good luck!
It’s from an album of music that (I believe) is widely available to the LDS community. The little interview is intermingled with a very popular song. Here is a little more of the conversation:
“I think…California.”
“Why California?” “Because, it’s sort of a cheerful place.”
“Do you know where California is?” “Sort of. Under Utah? …a little? I know where Maine is!”
Congratulations to Me…and Whitney!by Angie
16 Nov 2007
9:11 pm2
Tonight we attended the Springtown Ward Thanksgiving Pie Bake-Off. There were lots of people there and about a dozen pies were submitted for thorough scrutiny. I had spent the afternoon preparing Whitney’s Famous Apple Pie. Although I think it will take me a few more tries to approach Whitney’s prowess on this recipe, my pie actually took second place!
It was a very fun evening. We also did a white elephant gift exchange: the first gift we unwrapped was an aerosol can of Pledge, and we actually had it stolen away from us; we ended up with a babysitter’s reminder white board thingy. Not very useful to us, I’m afraid; but we couldn’t convince anyone else to steal it from us.
The most surprising gift was actually the most unique white elephant gift I have ever seen in my life: A live salamander, with a cage and sand and water and everything, that had been captured/rescued from someone’s backyard pool this very morning. The poor sister who unwrapped it was obviously very uncomfortable with an amphibian and was very unwilling to take it home. Luckily it was stolen from her by a mom who knew her kids would love it.