Lessons Learned

Some things I have learned recently.

I share my wisdom freely.

• If you lock your keys in your vehicle do so when you have arrived at Cold Stone Creamery/Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory. Help arrives fast.

• It is helpful to have two or three or even four people to call on when you lock your keys in your vehicle. Being able to cast a wide net for help is amazing. And cuts down on the stress level immensely.

• An Ice Cream from Cold Stone is much cheaper than the price of Locksmith.

• The Caramel Apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory are HUGE and worth $3.50.

• Dog hair is a beast to get out of the carpet of a vehicle.

• When you decide to finally clean your Dur(ty)rango after two years expect that it will take four to five hours. Especially if the back carpet is still covered in dog hair. Even though you no longer own any dogs.

• You should clean your car on a day when you DON'T have to pick up a load of teenagers (who have just been dumped in the Provo River) from youth conference.

• Blotchy sunburns hurt just as bad as all over sunburns but they look much worse.

• Spilled red wine vinegar makes the whole house smell like...well, vinegar.

• PF Chang's Shrimp with candied walnuts is A. MAY. ZING. I highly recommend it.

• Pants with pockets are my friend. Pants without pockets are frustrating.

• That when you answer a question honestly and say that you are envious of someone in church, expect to be called out on that and asked why....in front of the whole class. And you better have a good answer. (This was not a bad thing. In fact it was pretty funny. )

• The Gummie Berries of my youth are not the Gummie Berries of today. The ones from my youth are MUCH better.

• Turning 39 is fine.

• Sometimes fortune cookies are right.

Someday my prince will come?

Tyran always gets the awesome spam.

Like this gem (or rather rare diamond) from a prince who is brother to the Sultan of Brunei BUT who is in *gasp* exile in London and how his brother and his infidel advisors (And his OTHER brother who is also a Sultan) have plotted against him.

You must read this to get the full effect. (I've taken the urls out of the email)

Hello,

I believe i can call you friend,I am Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei and I am the youngest of the Sultan's three brothers but its like a joke being called a prince due to the fact that The Bruneian royal family have turned me into an out cast.I am presently on exile in London.

My Brother the Sultan of Brunei masterminded and initiated much evil against me and He envied me as a person,he envied my life style,he was intimidated by my way of life and thus plotted with his infidel advisers to get me arrested for noting.He leveled all forms of corruption allegations against me and also accused me of taking US$40 billion of the royal treasury's money.

He has labeled me a criminal and ordered for my arrest,My Brother the Sultan of Brunei did this to me his younger brother.Yes i agree that I spent Money, but I am bewildered by the accusation that i misspent $40 billion. It's not that easy to hide, I keep asking the lawyers, Where did it go?.I have already turned over billions of dollars worth of property, including the Plaza Ath�n�e hotel in Paris,The New York Palace Hotel,the giant yacht, the car collection, and more than 100 paintings by Picasso, Renoir, Modigliani and others. Late last year, I surrendered five rare diamonds, secured in a London vault, valued at roughly $200 million.

My Brother the Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, has ruled since 1967 and He is the world's wealthiest ruler,with an estimated fortune of $22 billion. DESPITE HIS WEALTH, he still feels intimidated by my little Money.I have turned over the various assets, but my brother the Sultan will not let me keep enough money to maintain a more modest version of my prior lifestyle.Now the Sultan's advisers have started legal proceedings to evict me from my London mansion. We don't know where we are going to live. They want me to give it all back,i am worried that i may soon be homeless and forced into bankruptcy.

kindly Check out this above internet link for confirmations.


While in Brunei,my favorite car to drive was a Ferrari 550, a sleek sports coupe that i used to take for a spin late at night when the roads were quiet. Now, I like the Mini. I drive a black small mini around London. I am been watched by private detectives employed by my Brother the Sultan.He wants to ruin me,but he cannot.My friend, i dont know you, but from my little snooping into your profile,i strongly feel you can be of help to me.I want you to take me as a friend in need and do something for me that will also benefit you. Right now i cannot trust any body close to me.I have been betrayed by my friends and family and I am tired of talking to lawyers.

I prefer to take the Risk of soliciting the assistance of a stranger. You may think i am going crazy,but i am very sane.I still have billions of dollars safe and secure in safe countries, but i cannot touch these funds hence they are discovered by my King Brother watching my every move like a Hawk. I need you to assist me in these financial steps of securing my entitlements. You will benefit immensely from these financial exercise.I am an easy going gentleman, so please be rest assured that my business relationship with you will be very sincere and the friendship will extend to our children s.

Yours Sincerely,
Prince Jefri Bolkiah.

No crazy prince ever wants to be my friend. All the spam I get usually has to do with little blue pills. What's up with that?

The Terrific Twos

My Great-Nephew turned two and I got to take his pictures.

If you want to see the rest of them go

here.

Love this kid.

An Amazing Story

This is my sister and her fiancée, Russ.

Their story is a pretty amazing story.

Some of you know it...

the rest of you are about to.

Angie and Russ are two of the most amazing people I could ever hope to know.

I've known Angie since I was born. She's my older sister by five years (although you would never guess that by looking at her. She looks like she's the younger one.)

I've know Russ almost as long. I met him when I was four and he married my oldest sister Pam.

(I heard that intake of breath. And I'm sure you may be confused. Let me help you understand.)

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that Pam died unexpectedly earlier this year. She went to sleep and never woke up. It was a very difficult time for our family.

About five weeks after she passed away my sister Angie told me that she needed to talk to me. I knew that whatever she wanted to talk to me about was important because she didn't want to talk about it over the phone. It was late in the evening when I finally made it home but she still wanted to come over and talk. I thought it had something to do with my younger brother and was not looking forward to the conversation.

When the doorbell rang and I answered it Angie was not alone. Russ stepped into the doorway as well. I was confused but didn't really know what to think of it. They came in and Ty and I sat down to talk with them.

They had come over to ask us if we would be okay with the two of them dating. (I guess that they had already talked with my five brothers and Russ had actually went and spoke to my mom about it as well.)

As the words were coming out of Russ' mouth I started shaking. Shaking and almost crying. Because right then I had remembered something. Something that I had thought at Pam's funeral. I had the thought "That would be so cool if Angie and Russ could get together." At that time I felt like I was being disloyal to Pam so I put the thought out of my head, thinking that if it did happen it would be far down the road. I never said anything about it, not even to Ty. As Angie and Russ were sitting there on my couch that evening that experience flooded back into my mind and I sat there shaking and remembering it.

Russ was concerned that people would think that it was too soon. Which is understandable.

For the past few years Pam struggled with depression, anxiety and chronic pain. Russ stood by her through it all. But I think that he mourned the loss of the woman that he fell in love with. I believe that he's mourned her for years. I don't think that it was too soon.

I gave them my blessing.

Some of you may not understand but believe me when I tell you this. I KNOW that Angie and Russ being together is a good thing.

Not only a good thing but the RIGHT thing.

An amazing, incredibly wonderful thing.

I KNOW that Pam is okay with this. Angie has been a single parent for years and she deserves a great man. Russ is that great man.

Tuesday I had the opportunity to follow them around and take their pictures. If I could bottle up the happiness that radiated from them and sell it I could make millions. Millions I tell you. I felt privileged just to be around them. Honored that they would let me share in a bit of that happiness.

Tomorrow I will have the opportunity to be there as they are married.

There's not much that could make me happier right now.

So now you know their story.

Told you it was amazing.

Shedding

I'm not the only one around here doing it...

We have two snakes living under out porch.

Severus Snake and Salazar Slytherin.

One of them left this not so little bit of skin behind.

They totally have me beat.

Shut Up!!!

Please let this be rated PG-13

If you don't have something funny to say...

then don't say anything at all.

That's kind of the way my mind has been rolling this last little while.

The brain has been full of stuff. Just not necessarily light hearted, fun filled, smiley faced stuff.

I went to the CBC. That's not to say that the CBC wasn't fun filled and full of smiley faces! The conference itself was really great and so were the ladies. Unfortunately my hormones were not that great. I seriously dislike hormones.

Hate.

Loathe.

Despise.

Would be a more appropriate words for the feelings that I have for the hormonal fluctuations that seemed to be in control of my body and emotions that weekend.

Normally when I get like that I can kind of fake my way through and everything is good. This time around? Not so much. We are talking sitting in a bathroom stall crying hormonally.

I almost left the CBC social on Friday night and just went to a movie by myself. Thankfully, Amber and DeNae came to my rescue and forced me inside. Then I got the best hug and greeting ever from Annie. (Seriously, she gives the best hugs.) I'm afraid I didn't reciprocate it in the best way because of the H. word. I'm sure I came off as stand offish and boring.

I sat with Amber, Kristina, Veronica and Sherrie and felt like, as Sam from iCarly would say, a total nub.

(Does it make me a nub that I referenced iCarly? I not so secretly love that show.)

I even got chap stick from Jessica at Bern This! Not that that makes me special or anything because she gave out chap stick to pretty much everyone. And still I felt like a nub.

I saw Wonder Woman and Rachel as I left early. (At least I believe it was Rachel. The state of mind I was in as spoke with them left a lot to be desired.) I said a quick hello and goodbye to Jessica from Duck, Duck, Cow and Jo and a group of other ladies as they sat out in the hallway chatting and I fled the scene.

What was wrong with me?? Gah!

Saturday the hormones were a little bit more manageable. Thanks again to Amber for letting me be her shadow. The classes I attended were good. I still felt totally off of my game.

Some of the highlights from Saturday were.

• Listening to Matt Townsend. I am SO signing up for one of his date nights. Oh yes I am. He was fabulous! I was in tears about the puffy shorts.

• Sitting next to The Mormon Therapist and getting her card. I'm pretty messed up and so is my family. I can use all the help I can get.

• Having Jessica from Bern This reenact her flight into Salt Lake complete with the bear hug that she was giving to the lady in her seat next to her. It was awesome.

• Getting to ride in Kristina's car to go and get some lunch.

• Sitting in on Annie Valentine's class about writing.

• Meeting Crash from The Crash Test Dummy Diaries. (I seriously thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I met her.) And then sitting between her and Amber in a class about getting published given by Annette Lyon and giggling we were reading Jessica's post about her first experience with tampons on Ambers phone. I couldn't stop laughing!! (My deepest apologies Annette.)

• Then having Crash think that I was actually TAMN. BAAAAAAAA! I hope this case of mistaken identity doesn't anger TAMN because I'm all tub-o-lardy and she's well... not. That and I don't dress my kids identical nor have a husband in law/medical/dental school. May Crash and I avoid the wrath of TAMN.

• Getting to drive Annie and Crash in my car. (They have no idea how close they came to being kidnapped.)

• Getting to have dinner with Annie, Kristina, DeNae, Amber, Annette and Crash. I may or may not have been pinching myself all through dinner. And they may now be well aware of my drinking problem. I had about 6 Cokes.

• Sitting next to Crash while listening to Courtney Kendrick speak. Crash and Courtney are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to writing styles but I adore them both so much. There may or may not have been more self pinching involved during this part of the CBC.

• Finally figuring out where I knew Judi from! She's a facebook friend but I've never met her or visited her blog! I finally figured this out just before I left the conference and was able to go up and say hi. She was one of the great volunteers that helped put the CBC together.

• Getting to give Motherboard a big hug and tell her what a fabulous job she (and everyone who helped put the conference together) did.

• Meeting, briefly (and possibly crying in front of them) Mommy J and Inkmom who flew all the way in from North Carolina!

• Watching Amber and DeNae interact as sisters. It was bitter sweet because of the loss of my older sister just a few months ago but it really and truly was wonderful seeing them together and being able to spend time with them. Thanks, ladies, for letting me have a glimpse into your world.

Wow that was kind of long. Wrap it up Shanna.

Okay.

CBC was great. Hormones? Not so much.

The end.