Blue-tiful

Can I really be thinking blue?? I do believe I can. Which is really strange. I never imagined that I would be thinking blue for my kitchen cabinets but I am. I'm thinking something like this.
Without the two tones of blue though. It will be the lighter of the two blues. I am also thinking of doing a yellow accent wall but I'm not sure if that would be too much color or not.

But I'm really liking the blue cabinets. I want something that will bring a bit of Summer in during the dreary winter months and I think this blue will definitely do the job.

Lockdown

My fourth grader had a program today. Not long after it started the principal came over the intercom saying that the school was in lockdown.

I had known something was going on not too far from the school because I had driven by a police cars and crime scene tape and everything. I was trying to find out what was going on from my mom because she has a police scanner. Unfortunately she had had the scanner turned off when all of it was going down.

I guess there was a fatal shooting about four blocks away from the school and they hadn't caught the shooter. Lovely.

The play was at 2 when it ended at about 3 the school was still in partial lock down because even though they had a suspect in custody they weren't sure if they had the right guy. Since I was already there I was able to get my two kids that were there at the grade school.

I headed over to get my Jr. High Schooler because they weren't letting kids leave without parental check out. But as I got there they announce the lifting of the lock down. So I just turned around and went home figuring it would take as much time to find Jona as it would for him to walk home and there was a big chance I would miss him.

No my 14 year old does not have a cell phone. We're barbarians I know.

Thankfully all is well, at least for our family. I don't know who was shot or what happened there. I feel badly for the family that is dealing with all of that right now.

There are a bunch of circumstances with Ty's mom that have kind of complicated things. She will be able to come home without surgery for now. But things with her health are still up in the air.

It's been a crazy day.

P.S. On a bright note I a met a lady at the school in the lobby as we were waiting to check our kids out. She was one of the lovely ladies at the blog lunch that I hadn't really got to meet! How cool is that? She looked at me and asked if she had met me recently but I told her she didn't look familiar to me. Then she said "Were you at...." but didn't finish the sentence. So I said "The blog lunch?" "Yes!" she said relieved. She didn't want to say blog lunch and have me have no clue what I was talking about and think she was mental or something ha! It was the cute Amber from Tavis and Amber! We have kids who go to the same school and even in the same grade and we didn't even know it!! I'll be stalking her from now on.

Brrrrr

When it drops 10 degrees in one day it's no fun. But happily we have no snow in our area, just wind. And even more happily it's supposed to be back into the 50's tomorrow. Yay!

Today we have a friend who lives in our ward is coming home from Afghanistan. He's been gone for over a year. His wife has things arranged so he will have a police escort from the freeway and their street will be lined with American flags. I asked if there was anything I could do to help and was given the assignment of picking up 100 yellow balloons and putting some around their yard and the rest at the ward chapel for an open house. I will happily oblige. This man was my bishop when I got married and he and his wife are two of my most favorite people in the world. Two of the nicest people you will ever meet.

An update on the magazine salesman that I blogged about. He did not come over last night. He had to have two teeth pulled and he had just received the news that his grandfather had died. I feel so bad for this kid. He asked Ty if he could come to church with us on Sunday though and he also asked Ty if he would call him a couple of times between now and then. It has got to be so rough being so far from home and getting news of of loved one dying. And I'm not sure when he goes back. If he goes back at the end of this month. I hope that is the case. Plus having dental work on top of that. That's hard. We plan on having him come over for lunch after church.

It's probably a good thing that he wasn't able to come over last night because we received a call yesterday afternoon that Ty's mom was having severe abdominal pain and was at the hospital getting an MRI. She has diverticulitis and the are keeping her in the hospital for a couple of days on antibiotics in hopes that they won't have to do surgery. So Ty was at the hospital for most of the night.

Wish me luck with the balloons in this wind! May you have a great weekend.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am Thankful for:

• Nice people who work at stores. I love going shopping and having the people who work at the store be happy, helpful. It can make my whole day. Sounds weird I know but it's true. I'll go back to a store just because of the employees.

• The Gilmore Girls. This show cracks me up!! Paris is hilarious. I wish I could talk as fast as they do on this show and be as funny.
  

• Melting. Specifically the fact that the snow is almost all done melting. Yay!!

• Indoor plumbing. I love this. It's better than sliced bread.

What are you thankful for today?

A Moment of Silence Please

For our waffle iron. It gave up the ghost this morning. Right in the middle of making a waffle. It gave it's best to the very end. It went into the garbage with a belly full of batter so it will be well fed on it's journey to the lands where it's waffle iron ancestors await it.

I'd also like to take a moment of silence for the many spiders that have lost their lives in our home this past month. I don't know if you have this problem in you home but our home has been inundated with those little yellow house spiders. Drives me crazy. So here's to those spiders that have gone on to spider heaven. May there be many insects there and your webs be full.

Sometimes

Sometimes in this day and age it's scary opening your door. Just a few miles away a lady opened their door and was stabbed for no apparent reason. Scary, no?

But Sometimes....sometimes.... something wonderful happens when you open your door to a stranger.

That something wonderful happened at our home last night.

A young man showed up on our doorstep selling magazines. (No we don't have a No Soliciting sign) Tyran answered the door and I thought he would make quick work of the young salesman. He rarely has patience for people coming to the door to sell us things.

But he didn't make quick work of this one. He listened. And then he did something that floored me. He agreed to buy a magazine. I was sitting in the front room on my laptop not believing what I was hearing.

Then a strange thing happened. This young man that was selling came into our home. For those of you who have experience with this, you know that they NEVER come in. Ever. They are told NOT to go into people's homes. He even said as he came in the door. "I'm breaking the law, my dad's in the military and is going to kill me."

He came and shook my hand and introduced himself. Very personable, friendly person. Ty and he went to the kitchen table and started to fill things out for the magazine subscription. Then this young man said "I don't mean to be rude but can I ask you a question?" Sure. "This being Utah and all. Are you guys Mormons?" We replied in the affirmative.

The next question he asked? "Do you have any literature that I could have?" I was stopped short. Did we? How sad is that that I had to stop and think if we did or not? I told him that I was sure we had a copy of the Book of Mormon that he could have. Our kids have one or two missionary copies laying around at any given time. He said that he'd been wanting to ask about the church but hadn't really felt comfortable asking about it until he came into our home.

I went on a search for "literature" as he and Ty talked more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I found a well used copy of the Book of Mormon and gave it to him. And he and Ty basically had the first discussion. He wore a cross on a chain and explained that he didn't really like it but that his mom had given it to him and she had passed on. Then they spoke of families and how we believe that the are forever, and how that is something that the church is all about. Being a forever family.

I also found a small card that had the 13 Articles of Faith on it to give to him. I was busy getting the kids rounded up because we had to head out the door to the Blue and Gold banquet so I didn't get to hear exactly what was happening but from what Ty told me it was amazing. The Spirit was here and that young man felt it.

This young man is in Utah for a month. He comes from New Jersey. Ty gave him his cell number and his business card and told him to call him if he had any more questions. We are hoping that he will come back to our home tomorrow night so that we can have the missionaries come and talk to him.

How about that? I found that sometimes when you open your door amazing things can happen.

(I also found out that I need to get more "literature" in my home.)

Inquiring Minds Want To Know

How often do you clean your appliances? Inside? Outside? Underneath?

Don't hate me because I rocked the Snuggie

I don't rock it as hard as Kristina but I did rock it. I'm surprised there weren't any of these on the red carpet last night. I mean they are so exceptionally stylish and this blue TOTALLY would have stood out. No one wore blue last night.


Here I am with the amazing Mrs. Pulsipher. This was a close as she let me get and it was just for the photo op. But I'm grateful for that! (Actually she was very sweet and even let me give her a little hug and a thank you for being the force behind this great lunch! She did a wonderful job especially with as many women as were there. She was warm and welcoming to all.)This is Bobie and Christa who were trapped behind the table with me. They were so nice and Christa even won the felted pig that Joe made! (I was envious). And even though Bobie looks like she is frightened of me I don't think that she was...I hope she wasn't.
These are the ladies that sat across from me Jo, Bonnie and Jill (I didn't get the chance to talk to Jill all that much). They were all such fun! They helped alleviate my fears of putting my foot in my mouth. (Thanks Jo!) And Amber and Danielle sat on my right. And Jessica sat at the head of the table on our end (but I didn't get a photo of her). Amelia is holding Jessica's beautiful baby girl, I even got to hold her! And I found out that Jessica and I are kind of "neighbors". Cool!
Here are Erin and Kristina looking all cute and you can see how much fun they are having!
And this was the far end of the table from where I was sitting ( I couldn't remember everyone in this picture so I apologize right now for not giving you a shout out if you are in this shot). I didn't get a chance to talk with these ladies as much as I would have liked but I did get to say hello to them.
Vanessa (in the green jacket) came down to our end to say hello. I already knew she was awesome because we went to the same High School we just missed out on each other by one year. She has some gorgeous eyes and her eye make-up was so cool! I'm going to see if I can get a tutorial from her. Martha (in the blue jacket) was there sans Alegra but Melissa was by her side. And I was able to give Tiburon her prize in person!


I also got to meet and say "Hi" to Annette, The Boob Nazi, Brittany, Tink, Shauna and Kathy. I am even in a picture with Kathy, Annette and Kristina and the snuggie on Kathy's blog but she probably has no idea who the heck I am so Kathy if you are wondering who that strange lady in the striped shirt is that is in the photo it was me. And I sat across from The Lady of Perpetual Chaos she told me her real name but I am drawing a complete blank at the moment so I hope she will forgive me. She was so nice!

And here are a couple of shots up and down the tables. I went around and tried to say hello to everyone. But I know I can't remember them all. There were also about three booths of ladies just next to the tables as well. All in all was so fun to go to this even though I was a little apprehensive and I did sit out in the parking lot for a minute or so before I went in. Every one was so incredibly nice and friendly. I hope everyone has as great a time as I did. Now I have many more blogs to stalk! Yay!

And thanks again to Kristina for letting me rock the Snuggie. I felt like I had won the Oscar.

I'll Admit it

I'm kind of nervous to go to this Meet and Greet.

I mean here are all these amazing, funny, interesting, funny, charming, funny, sophisticated (and did I say funny?), bloggers that I am going to meet. Of course out comes my inner Paranoia. And my Confidence decides to hit the snooze button.

Are you fan of Red Dwarf? Of course you are. Who isn't? Then you know what I'm talking about. If not then here's a vid. (Oh and Craig Ferguson plays Listers Confidence.)



Hopefully my Confidence will be back in force by the time 1:00 p.m. rolls around.

The Envelope Please

And the winners of the 200th Post give away are....

1. The winner of the Be Happy sign - Tiburon from Shark Bait

2. The winner of the Flower blocks - Blueviolet over at A Nut in a Nutshell

3. The winner of the LOVE blocks - Tammy from Time Flies

Please email me your snail mail addy and I'll get these out to you as soon as I can!

Thank you to all of you who left comments on my 200th post and entered into this contest. I am going to make it to your blogs for a visit if I haven't already.

And for those of you who didn't win. Stick around. I'll be doing a "Pay it Forward" post in the upcoming week or so, maybe sooner.

Serial Burglar

As we were driving in the car to pick up the older kids from piano a story came on the radio about a Serial Burglar. Jilli was riding in her booster chair in the back seat. From behind my head I hear this confused voice saying "Serial Burglar?". Now any other mom might have taken time to explain what they meant by that.

Not me. I messed with her head.

I told her that there was someone out there that went into people's houses and stole all of their cereal. "In the middle of the night?" she asks. "Just when ever" I answer. "Oh."

I probably should take her aside and clarify and tell her what a serial burglar actually is so she shouldn't worry about the safety of our house and cereal.

Right now I think we are safe from the "cereal" burglar because we are pretty low on cereal. I really need to make a Macey's run so that the kids have something for breakfast.

P.S. Today is the last day to leave a comment on the 200th post/giveaway!! Go leave one. Shoo... I'll post the winners tomorrow.

Song Lines

I love quoting movie lines and trying to guess what movies that they come from.

But I've found that there are songs out there that have certain lines in them that I like. Sometimes to quote and sometimes a certain line just speaks to me.

I'm going to share some of them with you and see if you know what songs they come from. The answers are at the bottom of the post in tiny print.

Mmmm 'Kay? Here goes.


#1. "I wish everyone was loved tonight, and somehow stop this endless fight."

#2. "How many times can I break 'til I shatter?"

#3. "I promise you I will learn from my mistakes."

#4. "Those lines are pretty hard to take when they're staring back at you."

#5. "And truth be told I miss you. And truth be told I'm lying."

#6. "Pulls her hair back as she screams, I don't really want to live this life."

#7. "I want to make you move because your standing still"

#8. "Come on now. Who do you, who do you, who do you, who do you think you are?"

#9. "No one else, can speak the words on your lips."

#10. "It seems to me that maybe. It pretty much always means no."


(Answers: 1. Better Days-Goo Goo Dolls, 2. Shattered -OAR, 3. I Will Fix You - Coldplay, 4. Nick of Time - Bonnie Raitt, 5. Hope it Gives you Hell - All American Rejects, 6. Meet Virginia - Train, 7. Paralyzer - Finger Eleven, 8. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley, 9. Unwritten - Natasha Beddingfield, 10. Maybe - Jack Johnson)

Change

So I'm pretty sure that there is some chuckling going on "upstairs" on my account.

I love change. I'm a big fan of change.

Now the time has come for me to change. And I'm not loving it.

I'm realizing that change hurts. Even when it's good for you.

I'm also realizing that when you are the main one making the changes and being willing to change, it hurts even more.

So yeah, change....

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Do you think God has a sense of humor?

'Coz you were all Yellow

I just took a personality test at The Color Code. Very interesting results. Can you guess what my results were?

Come on....I betcha can't.

Oh all right.

I'm YELLOW! (Surprise!) Here's what my results told me about myself.

Yellows (Motive: Fun)

Yellows are motivated by Fun. They are inviting and embrace life as a party that they're hosting. They love playful interaction and can be extremely sociable. They are highly persuasive and seek instant gratification. Yellows need to be adored and praised. While yellows are carefree, they are sensitive and highly alert to others' agendas to control them. Yellows typically carry within themselves the gift of a good heart.

Yellows need to look good socially, and friendships command a high priority in their lives. Yellows are happy, articulate, engaging of others and crave adventure. Easily distracted, they can never sit still for long. They embrace each day in the "present tense" and choose people who, like themselves, enjoy a curious nature. Yellows are charismatic, spontaneous, and positive; but can also be irresponsible, obnoxious, and forgetful. When you deal with a YELLOW, take a positive, upbeat approach and promote light-hearted, creative, and fun interactions.

It's pretty spot on. Although I have to take umbrage at some of the things. I can totally sit still for long periods of time. And I'm not sure how persuasive I can be. I'm not sure how I feel about having to be adored and praised. I mean I like praise as much as the next person you know?

But I am pretty sensitive to when other people try to control me. And the instant gratification? Uh yeah, that's me. Unfortunately. And I do have a tendency to be irresponsible, obnoxious and forgetful. Yeah forgetful is a biggie.

Now this was the "free" version of the test. And the results I got back informed me that...

"Shanna, your personality profile indicates that you have significant portions of other colors in your overall makeup that help shape your unique personality style. "

The other colors being Red, Blue and White. I'm sure I would like to know what those "significant portions " are but I'm not willing to shell out $39.95 for that info. I'm happy with what I've got.

( I did find out by reading the Comprehensive Analysis Preview that I am a"Purist without a Secondary Color" but that I have "secondary motive traits as a white." Isn't that interesting?)

So hey,

It was all Yellow. At least 56.22% of the pie chart was.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

How do you stay positive?

When you find yourself in a "funk" how do you pull yourself out?

Any and all comments would be helpful.

Thank ya s' much!

Grandma Vivian

My Grandma Vivian celebrated her 97th birthday on Valentine's Day. We knew she'd have a lot of visitors on her birthday so we decided to go over yesterday and visit with her.

I love my grandma. I spent many a Summer day out under her tree's snipping beans and eating rhubarb covered with salt. (Oh the rhubarb!!!) There were nights out on her hide away couch with my cousin. Days running up and down the path of her garden.

I took pictures of her with my kids. I should have gotten one of me and her together. I'll have to go back and do that.




At 97 she's still pretty sharp. She does struggle with memory and with who my kids are. But usually she knows me and I know she loves me. I certainly love her. Back in 2001 I had an experience with my daughter and a question she asked about my grandmother. I blogged about it on my "old" blog. And I'd like to share it here.

Thursday, October 04, 2001

I took dinner out to my maternal grandmother tonight. Thursday's are my night to take dinner into her. We (my mom, sisters and sister's in law) take a different night of the week to fix her dinner. She will be 90 on Valentines Day 2002. She is doing amazingly well. She doesn't drive any more but she still works in her garden and around the yard. Anyway McKenna, my four year old daughter, came with me to deliver dinner. We did a drive by dinnering because we still had other places to go. But we went in and gave her hugs and kisses and chatted for a minute.

As we were walking out the door grandma said to take the newspaper that was sitting by the door and drop it off to my dad. As we were driving away McKenna asked why grandma was sending the paper to my dad. I told her it was because she couldn't read it very well because her eyes didn't work as well now that she was old. Then McKenna asked me a question that brought tears to my eyes. "Old like the spider, mom? Old like Charlotte?" She was talking about Charlotte the spider from Charlotte's Web I couldn't answer her because I was choked up. Then she asked "Is she going to die?" When I finally found my voice I told her that yes one day we all die.

"But little kids don't die. Right mom?" That was a question that I didn't think could be answered while driving in a car, her in the back seat and me in the front. I will answer that one later.

As I had time to ponder her question about Charlotte and how it related to my grandmother I realized just how much my mother, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers and all women are like Charlotte.

We all do some pretty amazing things during our lives.

Sometimes the world sits up and takes notice and sometimes they don't but the things that go unnoticed are just as amazing, and most times more so, than those that are noticed.

Everyone paid attention to what Charlotte wrote in her web. It was out there for all to see and it saved the life of her friend, Wilbur. But she considered her greatest accomplishment to be her egg sac, her family, her posterity.

I know that I have been amazingly blessed to have six beautiful "Charlotte's" who have influenced my life (there are many more "Charlotte's" that I know but I choose to focus on the ones that are dearest to me). First and foremost my mother, then two incredible biological grandmothers, an amazing mother-in-law and two wonderful grandmothers by marriage. The time is coming, not far off, when some of my "Charlotte's" will no longer be where I can be with them physically. My paternal grandmother's 85th birthday is coming up in March of 2002 and yet it is highly unlikely that she will celebrate that day.

But I will celebrate. I will celebrate all of these women because even though most of their works were not held up for the whole world to see, they will be held and treasured and kept by me, in my heart. I will carry them through the years and hopefully pass them on to my children. For I know that my six "Charlotte's", like the one created by E.B. White, hold their families to be their greatest accomplishments.

And that, I believe, is as it should be.

Since that post I have lost two of those beautiful "Charlotte's". I miss them but I'll see them again some day. I still have four of those I wrote of in that post. And amazingly I have many, many more in my life now because of another "web". The world wide web has allowed me to meet so many more wonderful women. And I love it.

So today think of the women in your life, the "Charlotte's". I know I am.

Just Because...

I figured since this was burned into my retinas you'd all enjoy it as well.

Thanks Andi!!!

Did You Know?

Did you know that Sasha Fierce totally quotes Buzz Lightyear in the song "Single Ladies"??

It true.

I wonder if she had to pay royalties to Disney to use that in her song?

(If you don't believe me it's at the 2:17 mark on this video.)

200th POST! And Happy Birthday to President Lincoln

Can you hear the fanfare? See the fireworks? Hear the roar of the crowd?

I know that 200 isn't much for some of you prolific posters but for me? Yeah it's kind of a big deal. I've actually tried this blogging thing off and on since February of 2005 so...just over four years (not here on blogger but elsewhere). Before the blogging I tried my hand at the "web page" thing but never was really good at that either. I have one or two pages floating out there in cyberspace and I have no idea where they are.

I have been on this world wide web since my daughter was born 11 years ago. I needed an outlet to talk with other women and I found it in the little box on my computer desk. It's been a great ride. I've taken breaks but I always come back.

The people I have met have been diverse and lovely. There have been a couple that freaked me out but I quickly distanced myself from those few. Others I have slowly drifted away from but I still feel a bond there and I am so grateful to have known them. I'm even reconnecting with a few that I had drifted away from. I have met up with people in real life that I had only known before on the computer screen. And I hope to meet up with more...soon!


I know what you are all thinking...

"Enough with this rambling!!! Bring on the Give Away!!!"

So without further ado I give you, well, what I am giving away.

(These are all made with love by me.)

First we have a vibrant wooden square painted a beautiful Calypso Blue and covered in a cute paper with an adorable owl that you can hang by the beautiful yellow ribbon.
I made this in honor of my word for this year "Happiness".
You can hang it anywhere you want the reminder to Be Happy.

Next we have a set of four wooden squares painted in the colors of Spring with coordinating flowers attached. They have hangers on the back of each square so you can either hang them on a wall or they will stand on their own. The pictures below are different ways you could display them in your house.

And this is a set of wooden blocks with the word LOVE on them. To show my love for this blogging community. They also have hangers on the back and can be hung on the wall or set on a shelf. (The second picture is a truer to the actual black of the blocks. I'm not sure what happened with the first picture.)

There are three thing shown here but in actuality there will be FOUR winners.

"Did you say FOUR!?!?!" I can hear your breathless excitement....

Yes four possible winners. Two for my 200 posts and two for Abe's 200 birthday's.

Here's how it's going to play out. The first three will be randomly generated. (I'm a little fuzzy on how to give you more chances like mention this on your blog and you get another entry. It's all a little hard for me to follow so I'm doing things my way.) The fourth prize will go to the 200th comment. You can only make one comment a day but I will be leaving the contest open for a week. That should give ample time for the comments to reach 200 (I hope.) This also makes it so your chances of being one of the chosen randoms is higher for each time you come back and leave a comment. If comments do not reach 200 by the time the week is up then there will only be three winners.

"What does the 200th comment win? " I can hear you wondering. Well they will win a custom made sign of their choosing hand painted by me. We will discuss the details of that if/when the comments reach 200.

If by some chance one of the randomly generated numbers turns out to be the same as the 200th commenter then I will randomly generate again until there are four separate winners.

Clear as mud?

If you have any questions you can leave them in the comments or email me either one!

Oh yeah.

Happy Birthday Mr. President!!! You're lookin' good for 200 years.

What's Love Got to Do With It?

Thanks to Tiburon and Tanja for throwing this tag out there for my post #199!

25 Things I Love to Hate

1. Laundry
2. "Cold fish" hand shakes
3. People who leave their blinkers on
4. Zits
5. Dishonesty
6. Cold feet
7. Drugs
8. People who push drugs
9. When people mispronounce words or phrases (It's not "Can I axe you something? It's "May I ask you something?" and it's "I COULDN'T care less!")
   
10. The phrase "beyond a shadow of a doubt" I don't know why. It just grates on my nerves.
    
11. Gossip
12. The Suite Life of Zac and Cody
13. People who pull into that space in front of me while I am driving that I have reserved as my "safe stopping distance space"
14. Cereal bags (yes we buy our cereal in bags not boxes) that won't open with out tearing so you can reseal them.
15. Debt
16. Rich people getting monstrous bonuses
17. People who go "Green" with a "Holier than thou" attitude.
18. People who eat healthier than me with a "Holier than thou" attitude.
19. Pretty much anyone who has a "Holier than thou" attitude.
20. People who refer to me as a "Utah" Mormon. Aren't we all equal in the sight of the Lord? (Wait did that sound "Holier than thou?")
21. Plugged Nostrils. Especially if only one is plugged up.
    
22. Phlegm
    
23. Bruised Tailbones
24. TV remotes that don't work or whose batteries have died
25. Worry warts or Debbie Downers
    

Coincidence?? I think not.

In my time here in blogger-dom I have been aware of the wonderful things that other bloggers do to celebrate milestones on their blogs.

100th post? Let's have a give away!

Blogiversary? Let's have a give away!

I have wanted to do this but I'm not on top of things enough to notice when my blogiversary was or that I had over 100 posts until it was far to late to have a celebration giveaway.

Well, my time has come.

And not only will I be having a giveaway celebrating my 200th post BUT, BUT....if all goes as planned (and I didn't really plan it this way) my 200th post will fall on February the 12th.

Why is it such a big deal to have it fall on the 12th you say? Well it just so happens that on February 12th we will be celebrating the 200th birthday of my favorite President of the United States....Abraham Lincoln.

So is it a coincidence that my 200th post will fall on the 200th birthday of Honest Abe? I think not. I mean look how much Abe and I are alike.

We both are honest.
We both like hats.
He gave the Gettysburg Address....I give you this blog.
His wife was named Mary Todd.... I know both a Mary and a Todd.
He was a Whig....I like wigs and desire to own some one day.
He was a founder of the Republican party.... I like elephants.
He had large hands.... I have man hands.
His first VP was Hannibal Hamblin....Hannibal Lector scares me.
His second VP was Andrew Jackson....I have a brother named Andrew.
He grew up in a log cabin....I had a log bed.
He was able to make peace between the North and the South.... I help my children make peace with one another after they have arguments.
His face is on the penny.... I spend pennies.
He had a mole on his face....I have moles all over my body.
He had a beard... I pluck hairs off of my chin.
He was wise...I'm good at wise cracks.
He was assasinated....uh....wait.....

But aren't the similarities eerie??

So stick around for Thursday and mine and Abe's 200th giveaway! Can you just feel the excitement in the air????

Winter Camp

(or in other words one of the longest nights of my life.)

I actually had a really fun time at this Winter camp. We headed up A.F. canyon about 5 p.m. or so to start our adventure.

I do believe that I forgot to blog about my new calling....Assistant Young Women's Camp director! How cool is that? The ban has been lifted and they are allowing me back into YW after 11 years. I LOVE Young Women's.

We get up to Mutual Dell (a church owned property) and have dinner and then we were separated into four different groups where we played games to get to know one another better. Fun times. We played Australian Pygmalion, LDS Taboo, Snowshoeing and untie the human knot.

After the games we had about two hours to go out and mess around on our own. We did some sledding and got our sleeping arrangements set up. After the two hours we had a fireside that was great. I really have missed being in YW's.

At midnight our group headed out to the place we had chosen for the night.
The red arrow is pointing to where we slept. And this picture below was my "burrito" for the night.


I actually stayed warm but I do not sleep well away from home. Whether it be in a five star hotel or on the ground in the snow I just am not a good away from home sleeper. I toss and I turn. And tossing and turning inside a "burrito" is not an easy thing. I was worried that my tossing and turning would pull the plastic off of me and I would end up cold and wet. I was worried about the plastic in my face and suffocation even with it being propped up by a bucket. I had one of my nostrils plug up. It was a VERY LOOOONNNNGGGGG night.

Plus there was someone in our group that snored all night long. Seriously. All. Night. Long. I didn't say anything in the morning because I didn't want whoever it was to feel bad. I mean they can't control it and I didn't want to subconsciously (or consciously) treat them badly for keeping me up all night.

So much of the night was spent watching snowflakes fall down onto my plastic and wondering when it would be time to get up and go back into the lodge. I slept for all of about an hour. As soon as I heard movement next to me I was up and out of my "burrito" ready to go.

We had a yummy breakfast and began getting things ready to go. I thought we would be snowshoeing that day but thankfully we were not. I was so tired I don't think I could have made it.

I really enjoyed it except for the no sleep part. Here are all the people from our ward that went. We all slept outside except for two of us. And we all survived! YAY!

*Note to self. Bring a night mask, earplugs and sleeping pills to Girls Camp in August or you will not survive.

I'm Falling in Love...

With Pink.

No not this Pink..... Although she is cool and I think she is pretty smokin'....

I'm falling in love with the color Pink.
The color for my photo challenge this month. Here's one of my favorites so far.

I'm contemplating doing a whole series on my daughter's pink music box with the ballerina in it.

Call me crazy. I won't mind.

p.s. I'm heading out of doors this Friday and Saturday for a Winter Camp and some snow shoeing!! so I won't be around to comment or check facebook. I should be back and able to catch up, hopefully, on Monday! Have a great weekend.

Snarking at the Green Tea Lady

Dear Green Tea Lady,

You know who you are. The lady on the radio pushing the green tea weight loss booths at the malls.

Your commercials annoy the crud out of me.

Your peppy little "I went from a size 10 to a size 6.....and after having kids that's a welcome result!"

What the????

From a 10 to a 6??? You were a 10 after you had kids????? The smallest I have ever been was a 10.

And then you tell us "If you could only see me now!"

Well guess what? I can't. For all I know you are just some lady who is heavier than me but has a great voice and does radio work. Pardon me if I'm not a believer.

And just so you know, I'll be changing the channel from now on whenever your commercial comes on.

Thank ya su much!

4 x 4

I have nothing much to blog about and I've seen the tag going around about going to your fourth folder in your picture file and posting the fourth picture there. So that's what I'm a doin'.

Here you have my 4 x 4. My oldest son with my youngest on her blessing day.

Playing around

I've been playing around today over at eLouai. Never been there? It's fun. It's kind of like playing with paper dolls. But you just click.My kids love to do it as well. I've been doing this to avoid the laundry piled up on my couch and in my laundry room. Adult I know. Here's what I've made.
There is a lot more stuff there than I've looked at. I've just played around with the candy bar doll makers. I'm pondering whether or not to cut my hair....

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Disclaimer: I'm taking this idea from Tiburon but changing it up a little. I do want to be like her and Kristina when I grow up but I don't want to seem totally lame and possibly stalkerish and do exactly the same thing.

I just sent out an email and before I sent it a box popped up telling me that "This email would be viewed as offensive by the general population. Do you still want to send it?" It had the word "butt" in it once and the word "sucked" twice. The word "sucked" was used in the sentence..."I've been sucked into face book. If you get sucked in let me know." I hit the send button.

Question: Are you offended by the words "butt" and "sucked"? Are they really that offensive as to make that email offensive to the "general population"?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Photo Challenge Blue Mosiac

So here are the photos that I came up with for Blue.


1. blue monkey, 2. blue cake, 3. blue crane, 4. blue patch, 5. blue flowers, 6. blue window, 7. blue jean pocket 2, 8. blue frame, 9. blue bead flower, 10. blue can, 11. blue wall, 12. blue eyes, 13. blue bowl, 14. blue cup, 15. blue daisy, 16. A part of the quilt on my daughters bed, 17. my daughters blue eye, 18. blue jar, 19. blue butterfly, 20. t-shirt blue, 21. blue flower, 22. blue bead, 23. blue pen, 24. blue jean pocket, 25. another monkey

With February here comes a new color PINK! This may be easier and it may not be easier. I guess we'll see. I already have one on my computer that I want to use though.