Arrrr! There Be Pirates Afoot!

Okay, so once a week is a lot harder than I thought......

There is a lot to talk about.  Let's start with Brooke's classroom because I think that is the first thing that happened after the fourth.  She decided to decorate the room with a pirate theme.  You can decide which is the coolest decoration.  If I do say so myself, Mom Topham, Brooke and I spent the most time on the net over the reading area.  Several glue gun burns and sore arms later, here it is :)

 Reading Area (The Deserted Island, where kids can go lose themselves in a book) A lifesaver doughnut thing is hung in the "porthole" in the coat closet door.

 

The Pirate Ship and Treasure Chest (Before the chest was decorated:-)

Here there be the treasure!  We have yet to hide it in yonder classroom.

The front view.  There are posters of Jack Sparrow and the bad guy from Stranger Tides and the little flags spell out: "High Adventure."  It was part of a Pirates birthday set!  Yay for $1 cool stuff at Party City!

Yes, there are bongo drums on the teacher's desk.  The net will eventually have pictures that tell about Mrs. Gillis so that the kids can learn about her.  I am not sure what the bongos will be used for.....maybe tribal dancing!

"It's the boat steering thingy."

"This is called the Helm."

"How does it feel captain Hawkins?"

~ Muppet Treasure Island

 

 "Beware of Pirates!"  That is on the sign in the glass next to the door. and yes there is a wanted poster over the filing cabinet (to put student of the week/month pictures up) and a lighthouse, and a pirate map on the right had side.  The makeshift bulletin board has a sailing boarder with a Greek feel and sea monsters on it.  (Ancient Greece is part of 6th grade Social Studies! Woo hoo!)The playground doors are just to the left of the class entrance.... Will that be a good or a bad thing.....?  Only time will tell...

The coat closet Brooke's class will share with the class next door is the end of our tour.  The side we see now is her side.  We've still got some preparations yet to do, but with this work we did those 3 days we could in July, we are much closer to being ready for school to start on August 21st.

God Bless the USA.

 

This Fourth of July season we have been led to think about the blessing that this county has been for us and our forebearers.  We are so grateful for the sacrifice that they have made, the ultimate sacrifice, that of their own lives.  That being said, none of it would have been possible without the support of the Creator of heaven and earth.  He blessed our fathers because of their faith on Him and so He could bring forth His church on the earth for the last time.  

We are grateful for this land that He has made free and for the lives of those men 

and women who were instruments in His hands to deliver us from bondage and those who continue to fight to help us maintain our freedoms. Fireworks or no fireworks, we love the United States of America today and always.

Fires of Faith: The King James Translation of the Bible

Brooke and I watched this today and the sacrifice of these men and women touched our hearts.  It is a three part series but it is very good.  If you don't have time for all of them, then at least watch the third one.  It can be seen out of context I think.

I can't embed this video but here is the link and a preview from YouTube:

http://byutv.org/watch/410aac43-ef61-46a2-874d-0101c1baa0c3/fires-of-faith-part-3-the-king-james-bible

Manti Pageant

 

Friday June 29, 2011

The Manti temple was the third Latter-Day Saint temple to be build after the saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.  Interestingly enough the land where this temple is built had been prayerfully dedicated to be a temple centuries before by an American prophet of God named Moroni.  Brooke and I went to visit this temple as part of a church activity.  The inside of the temple consists of exquisite pioneer woodwork and beautiful paintings of the Lord.  We came to see the temple, serve in the temple, and then to see the Manti Pageant.  

We were able to go back to a very significant room for us, which our friend, Stuart, dragged us into after his wedding to so we could see ourselves together in the eternity mirrors.  He pushed us together in front of the mirrors saying "Eternity with Brooke.  Sounds wonderful doesn't it?  Eternity with David......well....someone's gotta do it."  Haha. We were just dating then, but since we were married in the temple 6 months after that, it has been a fun memory for us.  

After serving in the temple for a few hours, we ran out into the heat to save seats for ourselves and our friends.  We were some of the first to get in when they opened it up at 6pm.  Then we went and bought some Chinese food to ease the rumbling in our stomachs.  The sesame chicken and beef with peppers tasted wonderful.  I recommend the Snow Dragon Restaurant in Ephraim. 

We made friends with the people behind us.  They helped us fend off all the would-be seat- thieves...who interestingly enough didn't try to take our seats while we were gone for an hour getting take-out in the next town over, but who saw their chance while we were playing paparazzi.  :)  You can see part of the lady we chatted with the most, while her friends napped on the ground or in a chair in the shade, in the picture above. She saved their seats in the heat of the day while they lazed around.  If we'd caught her name, we'd post the link for you to the pics she said she'd post to Facebook.  :)  They were a pretty comical sight.

As we ate, we could see off in the distance what appeared to be clouds.  These clouds however were not your friendly, "I'll give you shade" clouds.  There were the, "I was made by a wild fire" kind of clouds.  Aaah!!!  Yes we were directly east of a huge fire that has given Provo and the surrounding areas (1.5 hours from the fire), slight ash showers from time to time.

Anyways, on to happier events.

We met some Nephites before the performance.  The Nephite people lived in the Americas from 600 B.C. to around 421 A.D.  They had prophets, the last of which was the Moroni who dedicated the land in Manti for the temple that now stands there.  No, that is not him in the middle, I think that is a Nephite warrior.

We struck some awesome poses together.  Then, we met some Lamanite royalties.  The Lamanites are the people who eventually destroyed the Nephite nation and are the principle ancestors of the American Indians.

They were really popular for photo ops.  I think we were third in line and there were people lining up after us as well.

I did not take any pictures of the actual event because they asked us not to take out our cell phones.  They depicted the history of the Book of Mormon and its translation into English through the power of God.  The whole thing was very inspiring and strengthened my faith in Jesus Christ; though, the fire bombs they created with special effects made me nervous because of the wild fires ranging around Utah right now.  Thankfully, nothing burned down.

Space

Well, it has been an amazing week.  Looking back, I cannot believe how we had been living before the advent of a six shelve book case that is approximately 6 1/2 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet wide.  The boxes of books that we had have been emptied as you can see by all of the books filling the bookcase.  We bought it at IKEA and I got to put it together while I watched the Incredible Hulk TV show from the 70s and Brooke cataloged books that she will be taking to her class (yes, we own more books than are in the shelf above ;-) I love that TV series. Anyways, back to the story of space.  We could finally see the floor of our front room after weeks of wondering if there was carpet or if the floor had always been made up of books, papers, and boxes.  It is a beautiful sight.  However, even this behemoth of a bookcase to hold things, it has not been enough.  We still have boxes with books in them that will stay at home instead of going to school.  We lucked out though, as you will see in a moment.

Yesterday, Brooke and I took a trip to Layton to be with my mother, father, brother Erik and his wife Suzanne.  We went to the movie Brave, a gripping girl power animation.  I did like the movie and  the top but the message is clear: We the women of the world no longer wish to be saved by a man.  I think it is good for women to not be waiting for a man to save them.  Yet the movie also left room for the beauty of a healthy relationship between men and women.

We also had food from the Rumbi grill (Get the fish tacos!) and played Monopoly Deal.  All of this connects with the space in our apartment because my mom allowed us to take my old bookcase from when I was in high school and I hope that will help us get the rest of the books into an organized manner.  Anyways, thanks for taking an interest in our life!  Comments are appreciated.

4 MONTHS

So...we were thinking about names for our blog and blog addresses.  We thought it would be fun to put our last names together.  Gilopham seemed the best choice since Toplis just sounds wrong.  Don't you think?  Not exactly the picture we wanted to create.  :)

We have been married now for four months tomorrow! Wahoo! For our four month anniversary (yes newlyweds count by the month for anniversaries :-), we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City Utah this past Friday.  We visited the temple, ate at this new cafe in the Joseph Smith building, listened to music in the old tabernacle, and went and looked at the Christus statue.

It was all very beautiful.  We were especially impressed by the cafe we ate at; it is called the Nauvoo Cafe.  Brooke ordered a roast beef sandwich and David got half a Coca Cola Pork sandwich and a cup of tomato Basil soup.  It tasted wonderful but the food was not the best part.  The guy who helped us, his name is Roman, was from the pacific islands.  He greeted us with a big smile, asking us about where we were from and sharing a little about himself.  It was a blast.