Have a Fabulous Christmas!

We are leaving today for Utah, with a quick 48-hour stop in Vegas to see the BYU game. Go cougs! We will be gone until the new year, so everyone be safe and don't drink and drive. I look forward to the cheery posts I will see when we return. I'll try and take pictures of our annual New Year's Eve family murder mystery costume party so I can share the joy with you all......we go all out, it's great fun.

It's a boy!

Why did they give this girl a license?

I eat a bowl of cereal on my way to work. I started this tradition 6 months ago when I realized that it was too early for me to eat at home before I left, but 30 minutes later by the time I got to work I was starving. I realize there are safer ways to drive, but that’s not the focus of my story. Last week on my way to work I had a bowl of rice crispies in my hand as I started the car and began to pull forward, coasting a little on my empty street. Then I remember that Nate had driven my car last and the seat was too far back, so I leaned down, lifted the handle with my empty left hand and tried to gently scoot forward. The seat, however, didn’t move at all, it was stuck somehow. SO, I was almost to the point on my little street where I have to turn onto an even littler street, so I went to put my foot on the brake so I could slide the seat forward safely before I turned.
Then, simultaneously, my foot was hovering over the brake as my seat suddenly decided it was time to move forward, which made my foot hit the brake, which sudden stop in movement made my seat throw itself all the way forward like a rocket, which made my foot slam the brake pedal all the way down and the car come to a lurching halt and I was thrown against the steering wheel and I nearly crashed my head through the windshield and my rice crispies went flying. Not the bowl, no, I was still clinging to the empty bowl when I came to and realized what had just happened. Grateful I was alive, I moved the seat back again and surveyed the damage. I couldn’t have gotten the inside of my car to be that covered with milk and rice crispies if I had made serious effort. It was as if a rice crispy bomb had gone off. Apparently, rice crispies multiply in the bowl like grape nuts. It was on the roof of the car, the windshield top to bottom, covered the instrument panel, the steering wheel, the entire floor area, the passenger seat, the passenger floor, the middle console, in my hair, on my face, from my neck to my feet I was speckled and soaking wet. After a few seconds of stunned silence (and considering the possibility of just going to work like that, that explains my state of mind) I turned the car around (and drove past the two houses I had driven by previously) to get to my house. I sloshed in my shoes as I walked into my house and standing there on the tile decided all I could do was yell Naaaaaaaaate! He ran downstairs immediately yelling “What happened, is everything okay?” until he saw me, and saw the hundreds of cereal bits stuck to every part of me. Then he got this really compassionate look on his face and said, “Oh, did you throw up?” Well, of course that made me laugh to tears, but finally I told him no, that I needed him to help me clean my car because I spilled. He went outside and immediately came back in saying, “WHAT did you do??” Honestly, folks, it was SO bad, and we didn’t even get a picture. He had to bring out the shop vac!! So, that’s my story, my wonderful husband mopped up my car while I went upstairs and took a shower because I had milk in every crevice.

And in case you’re wondering if I learned my lesson, the answer is yes....... when I eat cereal in the car I always make sure I move the seat first :)

For Amy, My Home Fry

Sorry it took me so long, dude.

8 Favorite TV shows:
1. 8? I hate most TV shows
2. The Office
3. Wheel of Fortune
4. Everybody Loves Raymond
5. Monk
6. Trivia shows
7. College football
8. That’s about it.

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. Went to work

2. Talked to my mom on the phone for 45 minutes

3. Drank hot chocolate sitting by a fire in our backyard

4. Had family home evening

5. Read some conference talks

6. Ate leftovers for dinner

7. Crochet (yes, I’m an old lady)

8. Had some great conversation with Nate

8 Things I look forward to:

1. Holidays

2. Taking showers

3. All meals

4. Seeing Nate after work

5. Making new recipes

6. Spending time with family

7. Nate shaving his face

8. Sleeping in on Saturdays

8 Restaurants:

1. Manuel’s

2. Maggiano’s!

3. Papa Johns :)

4. Outback

5. Wienerschnitzel

6. PF Changs

7. Tepanyaki

8. In n Out

8 Things on my wish list:

1. My dumb citrus tree to make some fruit already

2. The ability to play the piano

3. My degree finally

4. A sewing table

5. Health and safety for my family and friends

6. No headaches and perfect vision

7. A housekeeper (although Nate does a great job :)

8. To pay off student loans…..a wish in progress

And my 4th picture in my 4th album is this:

Sadly, my fourth album was the sample pictures, so it's not very entertaining. But pretty! It reminds me that I'm grateful we have family in Utah and Chicago, so even though we never see snow here at home, we are blessed to see it every Christmas.

Santa Fe! Are you there?

(A song from the movie "Newsies"). Before Christian donned the black mask.

ANYWAY..........I find it ironic that when my life is the busiest, I have the least amount of time to blog, and then when I do actually blog I feel like it's boring because the reason why I am blogging is that life has slowed down and I have nothing to share. Hence, the following post:

I have a couple more pictures of Santa Fe. You really wouldn't guess that we were only there for one day. And please, to my fans who commented on my apparel in the "hiking" pictures, re-read the story about how we were just supposed to take the tram that day but because of bad weather they shut it down and so we took a spontaneous hike in the rain. I obviously would have dressed differently if the initial plan had been a hike.......duh. Also the reason why Jessica was wearing heels, as pictured.

VERY VERY WET. Nate's jeans are not really that dark and my jacket is not two-toned.

Even with all my apathy towards animals, (and that doesn't make me a bad person) I truly love riding horses. I got to ride all the time while I lived in Jackson Hole, I miss that.

Not sure why Nate's picture looks smaller than the rest, but isn't he adorable?



So that's the end of that trip. Maybe in a month or two I'll post about D-land, the Grand Canyon, or other good times we've had recently. But mostly I stay busy with the Young Women, (including a sleepover/sewing party this evening), and work, and spending time with Nate. Today I will try and get around to decorating for Halloween. It's one of the two holidays I decorate for and I haven't started. Soooo behind. This weekend my parents are coming to town and my nephew is getting ordained and Nate's work is having a "cocktail party". And that is an entirely different story.

PS. Wasn't General Conference fabulous?

The News

I need help. I'm serious.

CAUTION: Those who avoid reading the news because it is too depressing, you may want to stop reading here.

When things are slow at work sometimes I look at the news online. I boycott cnn.com off and on because they are SO biased politically, but I haven't found a better new site yet, so I went there today. I'm sure some of you will have already heard about one or all of the following, but here's what I saw in the news today:

1) A bombing at the US Embassy in Yemen, multiple attackers, mostly suicide bombers. I think I can understand the idea of dying for a cause, but if your cause is to kill other people? I'm lost.

2) In Nevada, a supposed serial rapist/murderer is on the loose, who leaves the underwear of it's previous victim at the site of his current crime.

3) In Phoenix, a 14-year-old left her living healthy baby in a garbage can. I know this is not the first time we've heard a story like this, but it still shocks me every time. The baby was found by the principal, luckily.

4) Thousands of babies are sick in China because of tainted baby formula. A few have died. The men who say they're responsible say they did it to cover losses of a previous rejection of their business.

Not to mention the devastation that natural disasters are spreading.

I think I can stop there, you get the idea. The news just stinks, I really hate it. But do I just try to be ignorant of goings on in the world? Do I read but try not to internalize anything? How do I feel informed without having to read story after devastating story? And the topics I mentioned are just from ONE DAY. I need advice.

So, I require comment from my readers. Both of you. I want to be an informed citizen of this country, but sometimes the news just makes me sad. (Now that I think about it, there was a really good conference talk about this subject a while ago. I'll read that, too.) So tell me what to do. I'm up for suggestions.

Bad Blogger

I don't even count this post as getting back into the blogging side of life, because it's going to be pretty pitiful. To be brief, Nate and I went out of town FIVE times in the past eight weeks. I just got some pictures from one of those trips, a whirlwind 24 hours we spent with Nate's family in Santa Fe, so I'm posting them......well, because, I have nothing else to say.

When we found out the mountain tram was closed for bad weather, we decided to go on a "hike" (scaling a mountain full of cactus) with Nate's brother Ian and his wife Jessica. (Fabulous people, we love them). It only took an hour or two, but it was pouring down rain almost the whole time, which made it adventurous. Jessica was wearing heels!! Ian had his very expensive camera and tried futilely to keep it dry. My hair was so soaked it was dripping water and hairspray into my eyes so I couldn't see a thing. All in all, we had a GREAT time.