Gordon B. Hinckley

On Sunday, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints passed away at the age of 97. This is the church to which I belong. He was working in his office up until about 3 days before. His death was due to old age. You can read about his life and death here. It is short and more eloquently stated than I could manage. Please take a moment to read about this great man.

Here are a few of my less eloquent thoughts. 97!!! He gave more than 70 years of service to the Lord and to this church!! He loved us. O, how he loved us. When he spoke at the General Conferences twice a year, people (myself included) could feel how much he loved us. He was witty. He would often make small jokes or comments that would have everybody chuckling! Was he perfect? No. Did he make mistakes? Yes. Who doesn't? But he loved Heavenly Father and he spent his life in service of Him and strove for perfection... everyday. What a great example.

This tribute pretty much sums it up for me. Gordon B. Hinckley June 23, 1910-January 27, 2008

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

I wanted to do this yesterday on my actual birthday but I was deathly sick in bed most of the day! The traditional version of "Happy Birthday to You" pales in comparison to this version. I think I like this one better!

I'm just glad that my family came down this weekend and we were able to celebrate some. I started feeling crummy on Saturday but the worst of it was yesterday. Stinks to be sick on your birthday. Oh well. I'm feeling slightly better today.

Geoff was 'The Man' this weekend! He pulled out all the stops for my birthday. Surprise party Friday night with the Beishlines. Delicious food and fun games! Saturday he took me to get a massage! While I was relaxing he set up some flowers at a local resturaunt - Khan's Fire and we all went there for lunch. We returned home to a yummy cake that Terra and Roxane made while I was absent - Better Than 'Six Flags' cake. Unfortunately, Terra put in Evaporated Milk instead of Sweetened Condensed Milk so the texture was a little off and it wasn't near as rich, but it was still really good!!

All-in-all, I had a great birthday celebration despite hacking up my lungs all day yesterday!!

Family Christmas Cards

I'm finally getting around to posting about my family Christmas pictures! After MANY, MANY attempts at getting a descent picture of the fam this was the best one. Pretty sad, huh? None of the kids are smiling. Oh well. So for our Christmas cards I used other random photos and plugged them into an already created shutterfly template. (Next year I will be able to make my own with my new software!) The picture of Asher & Andyn is when he was sitting in time-out one day and she went over to give him some love. Now, if you didn't get one of these please don't be offended. We don't send out Christmas cards. I did these because I had a coupon code for 12 free ones and it was going to expire. We take our official family picture annually on Valentine's day and TRY to remember to send those out. I do have to say though that my blog is like a daily or weekly update of our family and really saves on postage. This may be the last year that we send anything out. What we do send out will have our blog address on it and if people really care they will find out about us there! :)

She is the Best

Some more works of art from my sweet Ainsley.

Artwork

I have often felt bad about throwing this stuff away. No more! I love that I can scan this stuff and keep it forever! Aspen (8) drew this one and colored it. Lately she has been practicing drawing pictures by looking at examples. This was not traced. This one was drawn by Aspen but 'illustrated' by Ainsley (7). These next four were drawn by Ainsley.

Look-alike Meter

So, I did this a LONG time ago (like October) but the website was giving me problems on the last two meters so I thought I would just finish it later. Well, it's 'later' so I finished it up and here they are. So for all of you that insist that Andyn looks most like Asher... fine.

Just a Little Sumpin' Sumpin' - update

I finally finished Aspen and Asher's charts. I'm having them printed at Sam's and then I'm going to laminate them so we can use dry erase markers to 'check' them off! Didn't they turn out so good!?

Dance Dance Fever

This is our version of "Dahle" Dance Fever! Whenever we have stayed at the Dahle's they have always cranked up the music and started dancing. In this earlier post you can see that they finally coerced me to get into the action. Well, since that trip you can often hear really loud music coming from our house and this time the kids started to bust some moves! Andyn has always been a dancer. She's 16 months old and she still loves it! It's like she can't help it! Here are 3 videos that I took tonight after dinner. My suggestion: you need to watch more than once. Each time watch a different kid only. It's so funny! Andyn this 'snake' thingy with her hands... nobody showed her how to do that! Asher appears to be thinking hard about his moves... not a lot of emotion on his face. And Aspen and Ainsley really bring out some good moves! Enjoy

Dinner & A Show

This was our entertainment tonight at dinner:

Just a Little Sumpin' Sumpin'

While I was waiting for cabinet doors and hinges to dry yesterday, I worked on this job chart that I was creating for Ainsley. It turned out so good. I'm working on one for Aspen and Asher, too. But there was a little bit of a learning curve with my new software. I'm hoping the other two don't take as long! I got the template from this sweet lady's blog: Little Wonders. The digital scrap-booking supplies are from Anne Lang at Two Peas in a Bucket.

Transformation!

We've lived in this house for almost 2 years. I can hardly believe it. For 2 years we have lived with some home improvements unfinished. The light switches and outlets in this house were all mismatched and missing face plates. We have always said we'll get to it. Well now it's crunch time! If we want to have this house ready for sale soon we have got to get on it! Geoff decided that Saturday was the day for the light switches. He turned the electricity off around 10 AM and worked on it for about 5hours. 5 hours!!! It was like 25* outside! The kids were going bonkers! Positive side: saved a few $ on our bill and I have beautiful light switches and outlets that all match! Next on the agenda (my agenda) was our bathroom cabinets. I decided to paint them and add new hardware. They turned out so nice! (Thanks to Amber for her knowledge and support!) I'm so pleased! Now, if I can do something to the counter top and then add a few decorative elements, I will have one room completely done!!!

Free Agency Update

I thought that I would take a moment to respond to the comments and emails that I have received. Thank you. I am so grateful for your love and support. I will continue to use these responses in an effort to improve my spiritual well-being. Interestingly enough, we all went to church on Sunday and each of the kids independently informed me that they enjoyed it. I know that this may not always be the case but at least it is right now. As for me, it wasn't AS painful for me. I have a feeling it is only going to get better. I am making efforts each day to "get better".

They Say It's Your Birthday

Yep that's what they say. I believe them. It's happened on the same day every year (January 28th) since I was born. Most years my friends and family have helped me feel pretty special on that day. Well, today in Relief Society they passed around 15 or so birthday cards for everyone to sign for those sisters whose birthdays are in January. I know, a little crazy but I think they're trying. As I waited for them to be passed around I thought how 'cute' it would be if I signed my own. (I know, how clever!) When it came around to the lady next to me she realized it was for me and tried to be sneaky and not pass it to me. I kept thinking 'No! I HAVE to write something on it! It will be so funny!' So, she passed it to the ladies behind us who had already signed it and they reached over and handed it to me. I guess they thought that they might as well give it to me. So, I signed it and added it to the huge stack of other birthday cards on my lap then gave them to the lady who started the whole mess! Well, she closed it up and gave it to me before I left.

I've included a scanned copy of the card (which I thought was really pretty) and a scanned image of the INSIDE of the card. See if you can read what I wrote! I'm so stinkin' funny!

Speaking of my birthday - I decided to add a list to the left of some things I'd like for my birthday. Only for the benefit of those who NORMALLY give me a gift for my birthday. Those who don't NORMALLY buy me anything can just read the list and... smile.

Here I will describe what is on that list:

Life is Beautiful - This movie is wonderful. Such a great story. The Moaks introduced us to it several years ago and I've always wanted to add it to our selection of movies.

The Wicked Soundtrack - I recently finished reading Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and really liked it. Since I may never have the money to see the Broadway Musical I would be just as happy with the soundtrack from it.

The Peacegiver - I just read the first 3/4 of this book online but in order to finish it they want you to buy it. I will probably buy it if I don't get it for my birthday. It is really good so far.

ShopSmart Subscription - Ashley introduced me to this magazine when it came out and I remember being highly annoyed that I couldn't get a subscription to it at the time. It was that good. Now, they offer it as a subscription and I just keep hoping that somebody will get it for me.

Real Simple Subscription - Here is another subscription that I just can't bring myself to pay for. But I LOVE this magazine. Sooner or later I'll break down and get these subscriptions but I will definitely shop around and get a good deal! NOT going to pay 20 bucks for a magazine subscription!

Tivo - Really... I just want a DVR. It doesn't have to be a Tivo. Actually, I would prefer that it wasn't because I do NOT want to pay a monthly fee. We do not have cable or satellite we have 3 channels - NBC, CBS, and PBS. That's all we need or want. But I would really like to be able to record my favorite shows on those channels - over the air - without having to worry about VHS tapes!

Roomba Scooba - Any cheap older model will do. I love the idea of turning something on and leaving the room only to come back to a clean floor! We have laminate flooring throughout our whole house (which I LOVE) and I really don't enjoy mopping it ALL the time!

Roomba iRobot - From what I have read I could probably get away with just the scooba because it does vacumn up dirt before it mops but I would be just as happy with just this one. I probably need to keep mopping anyway so that I can be humbled and burn a few calories!

Pie crust sheilds - These don't necessarily have to be from Pampered Chef but I hate having to "create" pie shields with foil! It never works exactly like I want it to and they slip off too easily!

So, there it is! If you feel so inclined to get me any of these things (Dad) they will be greatly appreciated! If, however, you are not able - a simple "Happy Birthday, Steph!" will do!

Julian

I have been reading a little about this little boy who's dying of cancer and his family that is dealing with it with such courage. This is the a latest update:

BECAUSE I SAID SO: Julian is Free

Be warned: it is sad.

Free Agency

Today I actually chose not to go to church for the first time ever. For the last few months I have had pretty viable excuses. Out of town, I was sick, one of the kids were sick... But today was different - everybody healthy, not out of town. I'm having a really hard time. The girls both started to say that they weren't feeling well but of course I read right through that. I asked them why they didn't want to go and they said "it's boring" and that they didn't really like it that much. This made me sad. But I had to agree. Though my reasons for not wanting to go are slightly more complicated, I had to agree. I also couldn't make them go with their dad (who, of course, is amazing and never feels like giving up on the whole church thing!). I told them that I understood how they might feel that way and that maybe as a family we should work together to find ways to enjoy it more. This was hard for me. Should I make them go or should I let them exercise their free agency? I make them go to school. What's the difference?

My friend Amber posted on her blog a while back "Deep Thoughts". I remember thinking how brave she was to open herself up like that. So, this post seems to be slightly more personal than maybe I'm comfortable with but I'm hoping that by presenting it in a slightly more public fashion will help me get my butt off of the fence. I've been struggling with my testimony for years and recently had someone close to me leave the church. I'm feeling desires to make changes of some fashion because I'm truly miserable in the spiritual realm of my life. I welcome thoughts or ideas but don't require them in order to read this post! :)

About the Girls' Blogs

Just thought I would mention that these will not be public. Just to be on the safe side. They will be by invitation only.

The Things I Do For Them

I have officially spent all of my morning designing blog headers and blogs for my two oldest daughters! I'm insane. But... it was TOTALLY FUN! They had a good time picking out the colors and embellishments and they're excited to write their own thoughts down! Like mother, like daughters! I'm sure the excitement will wear off for them but it was still fun! They are ALWAYS saying "Blog about it, Mom!" whenever something funny happens or I take a picture of something!

These are the headers they designed:

Christmas in Michigan

We only thought our troubles were over when we left St. Louis! Not so.

As we leave Amber's house we drive straight into a serious case of the fog! It was really bad. Especially as we drove over the Mississippi river. We thought it might let up after crossing the river but it did not. It got worse. I called my brother to have him look up the weather forcast in the region that we would be driving. There was a fog advisory. More particularly, exactly where we were at was a "freezing" fog advisory. Geoff posted earlier about this if you want to read it I think you will find it quited entertaining. Just to back him up for those of you who think he is full of poo because YOU'VE never heard of "freezing fog" here is a description taken from Wikipedia:

"Freezing fog occurs when liquid fog droplets freeze to surfaces, forming white rime ice. This is very common on mountain tops which are exposed to low clouds. It is equivalent to freezing rain, and essentially the same as the ice that forms inside a freezer which is not of the "frostless" or "frost-free" type. In some areas such as in the State of Oregon, the term "freezing fog" refers to fog where water vapor is super-cooled filling the air with small ice crystals similar to very light snow. It seems to make the fog "tangible", as if one could "grab a handful"."

It was crazy!

Well, we got to Hastings just in time to catch the Holly Trolley with Geoff's family. You can read about that in this previous post. Here are some pictures from our evening of caroling and riding around Hastings:

These next pictures are from the family gift exchange after the Holly Trolley. Aspen is holding a VERY special gift that each family recieved from Dawne. She had started this very special project before she passed away and Karin was able to tie up the loose ends so that they could presented at the special occasion. The gift was a story that Dawne had written about her Great Grandmother Eleanor that she had printed in book format and a hand sketched paper doll mounted on sturdy board. Fortunately, the entire story was written and all of the paper dolls were finished before she passed away. The only thing left to do was finish having them printed and adding a bow to the front (per her handwritten notes). They turned out beautiful. What a very special gift. Kent is reading Luke 2 in the following photos. It was really nice to see all of the family. The cousins were pleased as punch to see each other!

While we were there, we took the kids to visit Grandma's grave. They did really good. Somehow I don't think it has really hit them. It's hard because we live so far away and they don't get to see this side of the family very often. I, on the other hand, had a hard time. I feel the sadness creeping in on me even as I type this up. I miss her.

On our way out we stopped at Mooville farms. The best way I can describe it is: it's a lot like Braum's here in OK. Only it's not a chain. It would be like visiting the farms at Tuttle, OK. This is where I thought I had lost my camera. FYI, Geoff found my camera in the diaper bag several days after we got back at 3 in the morning at my dad's house. This was after I had purchased another one on ebay to replace it! No worries, my sister is buying it from me.

Chocolate Rain

This is a song/video that Amber & Craig introduced us to and we found hilarious! I guess Dr. Pepper hired him to do a web-based music video for their new flavor: Cherry Chocolate Rain. That video is a little racy so I let you look for it yourself if your interested. You will catch my kids singing this all the time! There's one called Vanilla Snow that is pretty funny, too!

Beginnings of ONE CRAZY TRIP

OK. Here goes. We drove to Michigan for Dawne's memorial service and to celebrate Christmas with Geoff's family. It was the trip from he**!! We were planning on heading out early Saturday morning (12/15) but the weatherman predicted some really nasty stuff heading towards us that day so we decided to head out after Geoff got off work on Friday afternoon (4:30PM). This meant that all the packing of luggage and loading of the car was left up to LITTLE OLE ME!! I HATE doing it by myself! It's SO overwhelming. Especially with four kids! Geoff and the kids usually get themselves packed but this obviously wasn't an option this time. I did it. I got it done. All by myself ::patting myself on the back:: And we left the house before 5PM. Perfect. We would be ahead of the storm and make it to Amber's in St. Louis in about 8 hours. NOT!! About 4-5 hours into it (not real sure because I was sleeping ::grin::) it hit! It was nasty. Rain, sleet, snow you name it - it hit hard. It was like that for us the entire way to St. Louis. Now, SMART people would have pulled over and got a hotel or something - not us. We didn't want to fork over the money and if we were going to get snowed in somewhere, we really wanted to be snowed in at Amber & Craig's! Geoff was driving around 35-45 mph in that stuff watching car after car spin-out into the median! I was having trouble sleeping at this point so I stayed awake to "help" ::grin:: (mostly just saying 'oh crap' over and over). After about 3 hours of this stress and anxiety Geoff informs me that he can no longer do it (and I wasn't about to volunteer for the job). He suggests stopping in Rolla (which is normally about 1 1/2 hours away from St. Louis) and getting a hotel room. By this time it's around 1 AM. I was OK with the idea but felt we were so close and if we stopped now we could be stuck there for 2 or 3 days! He decided to stop. As we were coming up on the exit he looked at me and said "I'm feeling adventurous. Let's keep going." And that's what we did. It took us 3 more hours! Kudos to my brave man! Well, it was SO worth it! We got to Amber's at 4:30AM crawled into warm beds and woke up to people who were really happy to see us! It snowed all day Saturday. Despite the snow Amber and I went shopping and left Geoff with the kiddos! Lots o' fun! I had fun with Amber and Geoff had fun playing in the snow with the kids! I don't do snow.

We thought that we would get out of there Sunday but the same storm that we danced through was still hitting Michigan so we decided to stay another day with the Dahle's. Here are a few more fun shots.

On Saturday morning her ward had "Breakfast with Santa". Totally fun. The kids really enjoyed it. Can't you tell?

That night was their ward Christmas party. Here are a couple of pics from that:

We got Lincoln and Asher matching shirts. Lincoln size 3. Asher size 5. They are the same age by one month to the day - Lincoln being the month older. Isn't that crazy? Lincoln is a little guy and Asher is a giant. They LOVE each other.

The last thing that i wanted to share with you is actually really funny but slightly embarassing for me. Amber and Craig are notorious for crankin' the music after a meal and dancin' their brains out in the kitchen. I think they do it in there because of the open space, the hard floors, and the big mirror on the wall so that they can see themselves! Well.... they convinced me to get in on a little of this action. I don't dance. Not because I don't like to. Because I don't know how. This statement becomes very evident as you watch this video. Amber, however, has mooovves!

We really crack ourselves up! We watched this over, over, and over again. Each time laughing harder and harder. I'm sure that you will not find this near as funny as we did but one suggestion Amber had was to watch at least 3 times only focusing on one of us each time you do. You really get to see what dorks we are at an individual level! Here are a couple of still shots that I created from the video (click on it to make it bigger - thus making us bigger fools) :

Honestly, it was a lot of fun! After we left Aspen asked me if they (The Dahle's) were like family. I said, "Yes. They ARE like family." Then she asked if they could call them Auntie Amber and Uncle Craig. I, of course, agreed. We love you guys! Thanks for the awesome memories!

Now For The Good Stuff

Now that I have my blog all "pimped" out the way I like it, it's time to actually do some blogging! I still have so many things on my brain (and my voice recorder) that I want to blog about so I'm going to try to catch up this weekend. Speaking of "good stuff" it doesn't get any better than this:

This morning Andyn let me put this cute hat on her (she doesn't really like hats). She even left it on for a mini photo shoot!

Kudos to This Mom

Click here to read about "The Meanest Mom on the Planet".

I Think I Fixed It!

Those of you who are evil enough to use IE will have to let me know, but I think I fixed the problem with the layout. :)

Just Some Random Funny Things

Went in to Dollar General today and the cashier did a couple of funny things. The lady in front of me was hacking something awful and the cashier said, "Got the crud, huh?" Even being a native Oklahoman I think this is hilarious! Even funnier is when my mom calls it the 'creeping crud'! I just think it's funny for some reason (love ya, mom)! Next, my total came to $9.17 and I gave the cashier $10.17. Well, she punched in that I gave her $100.17. Well, this confused her and she wasn't sure how much to give me back. I gently told her that my change should just be $1. The funny part is what she did next: she took her pen and on my receipt she marked out the $100.17 (that I gave her) and the $91 (that was supposed to be my change). And wrote 1.00! I guess she was afraid that I would return these items and they would inadvertently give me close to $100 in cash for some reason!! ::shaking head:: Some people are so funny!

Another funny thing: I read the blog by the lady who sold a pack of pokemon cards on ebay that her kids stuck in her shopping cart when she wasn't looking. Well, anyway, her latest post had me in stitches! It made me think of Geoff. He so totally would do something like this!! What I wouldn't give if Geoff could cook like Dave (Shelley's husband) or something!!!

Thank You. Thank You.

Unfortunately, changing templates deleted some of my page elements that I had set up. I think I have successfully set them all back up. I realized while doing so that I hadn't heard anything from Google AdSense about whether I have made any money or not on their little ad icon on my page. So I went to my google account to try and find it. I did make some money!!!! A whole 62 cents! They had a hold on my cashola because I hadn't set up a form of payment or filled out a W-9 form. I really hope this doesn't adversely affect how much our tax return is!! I would just like to say: "thank you" to all of you who are helping to put food on our table. :)

Aarrgghh!

So I just found out that if you're using Internet Explorer (crap, poopoo) then my layout looks like I have no idea what I'm doing. If you, however, are using Fire Fox (from the gods) then it will look great! There you have it!

Check Out My New Look!

My dad got me PhotoShop Elements 6.0 for Christmas so I've been trying to teach myself how to use it to do some digital scrapbooking. I thought it would be easier to start out scrapping a custom blog header. Shelley was my guinea pig (check her blog). After I did hers I thought I would mess with mine. After MANY hours of trying to figure that stupid software out without a manual of any kind (thank goodness for online tutorials at the digital scrapbooking sites), I came up with this! Tell me what you think! I don't know if I should consider myself a smartie because I figured out how to do this or an idiot for wasting so much time doing it!! This is what the template looked like before I started:

Finally, It Works!

For several months now I have been trying to find a way to archive my blog. A way to print it out and put in a book or just save to my computer. I even put that on my Christmas wish list. Geoff really tried to find a way to do it but didn't succeed. Well, my birthday is this month and he asked me what I wanted. I told him that I still wanted a way to archive my blog. He looked again and then sent me instructions for tweaking my html so that I could save posts to pdf but I just couldn't get it to work. After trying for a couple of hours - I gave up! I decided to google it again and see what I came up with. I remember finding this article on something called "HP Printing Widget". My interest was peaked. Sounded like just what I was looking for. But NO WHERE did it have a link to this glorious invention!!! I think maybe they had just barely come out with it or something but I couldn't find it. This time when I looked I found it and have added it to my sidebar under the archive. It was SO MUCH EASIER than the 'tweaking html' route! I only tell you this so that you can check it out to see if you want one too. I don't really expect that anyone else will want a copy of my blog but you may want one of yours. Unfortunately it doesn't print the comments (which, in my case, are sometimes funnier than the posts) but it will work for me until I find something that does. Also, it prints to PDF so you can save it to your hard drive if you don't want to print it off. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the link! HP Printing Widget

Our Forcast for Today

This is our weather for today. I thought some of you might find this somewhat interesting. Say...some of you people in New Jersey!!!! (Reason #492 to move back south!!)

Sunday

1/6/2008

Hi: 77°

Partly cloudy. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds 15 to 20 mph.

Lo: 61°

Mostly cloudy. Lows in the lower 60s. South winds around 15 mph.

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Read Y'all!

OK, one more post then I'm going to bed! I snapped another picture on my phone of one of the several posters that are hung in the hallways and library of my kids' school. Mainly because I found it hard to believe! The picture is hard to see but you get the idea:

Read here if you care to know the brains behind this campaign! ::shaking my head::

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Snakes!

I hate snakes! They just creep me out. Even harmless ones. I came across this picture on my phone that I forgot that I had taken. It's Ainsley holding her class' pet snake! ::shiver:: Heebie Jeebies! By the way, update on the other heathen creature (the mouse) in my home. When we got home from my dad's he was dead on a sticky trap. Woo hoo!! If you have time you should read this funny story a friend of mine wrote about his encounters with a mouse in HIS house. Click here.

Just one more thing about this snake thing. A while back I read about a game called Snakes & Ladders. I had never heard of it but since then have actually played it with Sidney Dahle. What really intrigued me was block #26. Take a look:

You may have to click on it to blow it up a little bigger. That guy is totally whipping that kid! Makes you wonder what the lady in block #36 is doing! Print Page

"Punch it Margaret!"

Do any of you remember a TV commercial in which an old lady was merging onto a freeway in her Camry. She explained to her geriatric passengers that she used to get white knuckles merging, but her new V-6 Camry was so fast, she no longer got nervous. One of the passengers yelled "Punch it, Margaret!" and the Camry launched into traffic.

That has to be one of my all time favorite commercials. I've been known to shout this phrase while in the vehicle with friends. Mostly just Shelley and her crazy Caravan!

I searched unsuccessfully on the World Wide Web for the clip or even just a picture to no avail! But what's better than real life? A couple of weeks ago as I was pulling up to the grocery store I noticed lots of emergency vehicles in the parking lot. Well, this is why:

I took the pics with my phone so they're not fabulous but you get the idea! Apparently, this little old lady pushed the gas peddle instead of the break when pulling into a parking spot. It made me think of the "Punch it, Margaret!" commercial! Funny stuff! Print Page