Done! and Done! and a Question for ya'll

K, the big Done! for the day is Elizabeth officially put in her two weeks notice...

Scary...

This really is a step forward in faith type of thing for me...I mean, this next year will be very tough money wise...I will be really really strapped. After this next year I hope to be in a better situation though. I will apply to PhD programs and hopefully get a full ride somewhere to get my PhD and I will be rolling...and if for some reason that doesn't work, I will apply for a music theory teaching position at a junior or community college somewhere in these United States of America.

How is that for a plan?

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The next Done! isn't nearly as big, but it's been on hold for a while...I had to buy Quicktime Pro to edit it because I took the video sideways...and it's just a little difficult for those of you that don't have laptops to turn your monitors sideways...

Here is the cutest video EVER! These boys came up with this on their own. This will be the absolute toughest thing for me to leave, because they are going to grow up and I won't be here to see it (I have to apologize, to rotate this video, I had to change the format, and I lost some of the quality, but hopefully all you family out there can recognize who is who...):

I am already starting to tear up...I love these kiddo's...

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K, so I have all these pictures of an exboyfriend and my exfiance on my laptop and on my USB flash drive...

Do I delete them? Do I not delete them? Do I save these pictures so that I can show future posterity the boys that I dated...or do I delete them so that I do accidentally find them and deal with the pain again???

What do you think???

Layout

Hey, I just updated my blogroll...would you make sure I spelled all ya'lls names correctly and such? Thanks!!!

1856: the Musical and Rocketgirl's Tag

Last night I went and saw the musical 1856 with my Aunt Dianne, Trudy, Debbie (friend of my Aunt's) and Robert (my cousin's son, Aunt Dianne's grandson). I was quite impressed with it, cried through pretty much all of the third Act...


The REAL reason why we went to see it was to see Cade (another cousin's son) perform with the band...this is Cade and his grandfather who is really fostering Cade's musical talents which I think is just wonderful, Cade is doing SO well...


Here is a picture of him performing with the band, and below are two video's of him playing...they are a bit long. I have to admit, the second one is my favorite!

It's a little dark, but evidently this song is about a chicken, and so he was strutting a little bit...hopefully you can tell, it's easier to see on my camera...

And GUESS who I met! Joseph Paer...most members of the Church will recognize him, but he is the star in Rigoletto, the movie, and a few other movies including the Church movie The Testaments. Totally cool to meet him!!! I think he mostly does operas, plays, musicals, stuff like that. He played the part of Brigham Young in this musical.

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Okay, here is the tag that Rocketgirl tagged me on quite a while ago...

FIVE Uninteresting things about myself...this may be a little difficult because I am pretty much the most interesting person on the planet...

1. I have spotty teeth...I do, you will have to check them out one of these days...

2. The first boy I remember being 'in love' with was in 3rd grade, his name was Travis, and he had glasses and red hair...thus I am VERY attracted to men with glasses and red hair. He actually passed a note to me once that was a check yes or no note which sparked the birds and the bees talk from my Mom when I told her...

3. We had a BIG tire swing in the backyard when we lived in Idaho (when I was age 3-7)...I miss that swing...and the back porch with stairs down to the ground level...and the sandbox...

4. I have three small bumps on my scalp...no they aren't cancerous, they aren't bald spots, just bumps...it runs in the family evidently...

5. I have tried since I was 4 I think to learn how to move one toe at a time...and I still am trying...with very little success. Only the big toe...although I did learn how to pop all of my toes without touching them...they crack really easily now. When I had my massage a few weeks ago, the therapist asked if she had just hurt me because she barely touched my toes and they cracked...I laughed and explained to her my incredible talent, which I usually use as my 'cool' talent...you know, most people use the moving ears, bend thumb all the way back kind of tricks...mines a little one of a kind...ok, it really isn't THAT interesting...

Irritated...and Birthday Dinner!!! and sick??

K, two things that irritated me this week:

Irritation number one:

Two different people were trying to contact me for the exact same thing. One calls, leaves a message. Acceptable behavior, yes? The other called me 8 times....yes, EIGHT...3 times within 20 minutes. Left two messages. NOT ACCEPTABLE behavior.

Now, understand my point of view. Cell phones have made people believe that everyone should be available to talk 100% of the time...I do not believe in this philosophy...I am not available to the general public 100% of the time. I am not available even to my family 100% of the time. To everything there is a time...and there is a time to not answer the cell phone.

Friday and Saturday night as I hit the sack I turn my cell phone off. I am not available until my body decides to wake up the following morning...PERIOD. I am not available until my body decides to wake up the following morning...PERIOD. I am not available when I am at Church, at the temple, out to dinner, watching a movie (btw, anyone want to go see WALL-E with me this week???), at a symphony orchestra concert (I can't TELL you how many times I have seen people answer their phone at a concert...I want to throw them into the brass section and allow the brass players to blast their ears out...)...you know, normal places where it is just bad etiquette to make noise let alone answer the phone...even texting can be abused!!!

At work, I usually have my phone sitting out on my desk. If someone calls, I may or may not notice since I have the sound and vibrate mode off. There are some people who I will pick up the phone for...some people I won't. Even the people that I normally would answer the phone for, if I am in the middle of something, I will call them back later. For those people I wouldn't answer the phone for...they can leave me a message if they really need to speak with me and I will get back to them when I can.

Now, I have fallen victim to being the annoying caller...but usually it is to someone I am close to (family, best friends)...but I really am trying to not be that kind of person...and I SINCERELY apologize if I have been the annoying caller to any of ya'll...PLEASE call me on it if I do that to you...

Irritation number two:

No, I didn't meet the guy...but of COURSE I meet Mr. Six Foot Six inches, blonde, blue eyed, my goodness hello ARMS man who introduces himself to me!!! I mean, how have I not ever seen him before??? He came up to this senior missionary and I as we were talking and asked the senior missionary "who is this beautiful young lady you are speaking with". My mind at that moment: take me, I am yours.......

And of course the third wheel in this heavenly encounter immediately disappoints MSFSIBBEMGHAM by informing him I am moving to Alabama. GAHHHHHH!!!!

This guy even asked if I was going to be at institute the next week, but unfortunately this was the last week since next week is the 4th of July...and then I had to run to my council meeting to set apart new council members...dang it!!! No phone number, no email address, no lingering conversation...

When the meeting was over, MSFSIBBEMGHAM was standing outside, but, you know me, I am chicken, so I talked with my friend and then left.

:(

Oh well.

At least I know there are still male members of the Church who are over six feet tall and have some manners who will approach a girl...that added a little fire to my faith in men...

Still is a bit irritating...maybe I will see him sometime this next week...maybe...where, who knows...ha, wouldn't that be funny if I ran into him at the temple? :) I am planning on going a few times this next week since I have THE WHOLE WEEK OFF!!! Yay for using up vacation time...

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So my best friends husband is officially wonderful. Originally their whole family plus me were going to go out to dinner to celebrate my birthday (which was 2 1/2 months ago...my fault, I was supposed to say when I could go...). He comes out from starting to get ready and insists that we go on a girls only (me, BF and Alana, their daughter) outing and he and baby Brigham will hang out at home.

Dustin, brownie points for you. :)

So the three of us went to the Cheesecake factory!!! Did you know that they bring out a separate plate of bread and sliced bananas for kiddos at the factory?!? I have never gone with kids, so I thought that was TOTALLY cool...

We had a good time, got cheesecake to go and have LOTS of leftovers. Very nice birthday dinner, I have to say, I was totally stuffed afterwards. Thank you SOOOOO much Julie and Dustin!!!

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I think I am sick...it's very strange though. I am freezing cold, I don't have a fever, my house is at a balmy 78-80 degrees, it is a thousand degrees outside...and yet I am shivering. How does that work? This started Thursday night. I wish I understood this body o' mine. And I do NOT have a fever. I didn't want to eat much yesterday (thankfully I was starving by dinnertime last night so I totally stuffed myself at the CF)...and NO I am NOT going anorexic. Can you imagine me being that, I think not! I have a love affair with food!!!

............but other than that...

...maybe it's stress...who knows...

Monsoon!!!, David's B'day Party AND Goodbye Sarah

I am driving home from work, and am greeted by the first dust storm of the season...

It looked something like this:



Pretty cool, huh? Not so cool part is car MAJORLY needs a car wash...

Which was then followed by one crazy thunderstorm...in fact, I thought at first that the dust storm had just kicked up a notch and that it was really windy. Then my roommate and I realized that it was freaking pouring rain! She got all freaked out because she often leaves her window down to keep her car cooler (when it's 105 outside, the inside of your car is about 200 or something like that...yeah, you are basically desperate to keep your car cool...) but luckily it was up this time.

Then about 20 minutes later it (the thunderstorm) dried up and it was about 95% humidity outside...felt like I was already back in Alabama...except it was much much much hotter.

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Went down to Casa Grande Monday night to celebrate David's 5th birthday! I CANNOT believe he is FIVE YEARS OLD. I mean, I was here when he was born. I remember when he first learned to walk. What happend?

So here is the David...I mean, the Spiderman:


He had to point out that there was a spider on each of the gloves that came in the Spiderman kit...I pointed out that there was also a spider on the mask...he had to pull it off to see it for himself.


There he is! BTW, have you noticed that he tends to wear Lightning McQueen shirts? :)


So the 'women' are jabbering in the other room, and all of a sudden we hear "pop, pop, pop!" Alice finds three boys eating a popped open bag of chips...while sitting on her windowsill. She came back wishing she had grabbed her camera before she told them to get off of the windowsill. I made them get back up, took the totally staged picture, and then made them get off. So here you go Alice...I am kinda thinkin' I should've used a flash or turned on a light for this picture though, what do you think???

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My former roommate Sarah is taking off for Northern Michigan to train at the Olympic Training Center focusing on weightlifting. She leaves tomorrow. So we had to go to Olive Garden to mourn, celebrate, whatever you want to call, her departure. I am happy for her and sad to see her go, she really liked AZ and had an amazing weightlifting coach here but I mean, this is an Olympic Training Center!!!

The three stooges themselves, muah, Sarah and Diana (current roomie).

BTW, she (Sarah) won second place (as in, silver medal!) at the Junior World Weightlifting Championship in Colombia (yes, the country). She is the champion, my friends. She will do well. Hopefully she will improve over the next few years and make it to the 2012 Olympics...woot woot!

(yes, she changed professions from throwing to lifting...LONG story)

It's Official...I AM MOVING!!!

Yes indeedy, Elizabeth is heading out to Alabama...

...one hitch in the system though. I had planned to move in with a good friend of mine, but after taking a REALLY good look at my financial situation...I just won't be making enough to afford living with her...which I am TOTALLY and completely bummed about...cause she would have been GREAT to live with...

...so Elizabeth needs a place to hang her hat, eat her food, and lay her head...preferably all in one location.

All for a VERY VERY VERY low rate.

I am great with kiddo's if you know of anyone looking for someone to rent a basement or something for REALLY cheap with babysitting as a bonus with this rental agreement...

...or if someone is moving into a new place and wants someone to share an apartment...

....or something....

HELP!

I would rather move in with someone that a friend recommends, so any ideas would be fabulously appreciated.

I MAY possibly need a second job with short and extremely flexible hours. I am extremely dependable with my jobs, and I go far and beyond the call of duty with any job I have ever had (just ask ANY of my bosses, they will tell you so), so if any of you hear of anything along those lines, I would appreciate it!

Halfway through July is my intended arrival, not sure of an exact date yet. And really, I am excited to go back out there. I loved living in Alabama (minus Katrina, Ivan, tornadoes and humid/cold winters). It will be nice to be close to a lot of friends and close to Scott and Penny at least for a short while again...

I will totally miss my family out here SO much, and of course my best friend and her family. It has been great to go to all of these reunions, homecomings, baby blessings, baby births, birthday parties, performances, etc. I really am blessed with an amazing family. I am glad more and more of my cousins are creating and actively using their blogs so that I can catch up on what is going on in their lives. It will be great for me to follow up on all ya'll.

If anyone feels like accompanying me on my move, I would love the company, I just can't supply you with a ride back to AZ or from AL to here...but if you are up for a road trip, I would be glad for the company! I am packing as light as possible...MAY be mailing some stuff out there, but this vehicle has a lot more room than the old wagon did...

Home Again AND The Family Reunion

Okay, here we go:


My cousin Barron and his wife Jessica came along with me to New Mexico over Father's Day weekend. If you know my sister Emily (Mary) and Barron, you know that they are two peas in a pod and have always had a special bond, so I thought all parties would like it if I brought along my cousins to New Mexico. Here we are eating at one of my all time FAVORITE pizza places, Dion's. Unfortunately you can only find them in New Mexico...it took 3 tries to get this photo to work. :)

For fun, we went to the Rio Grande Zoo together. Jessica took my camera and snapped away...I will hopefully put up a slide show of all the animal pictures she took soon (there are many)

...here are some people pictures in the meantime!


The beautiful bride! Seriously, isn't this a good shot? I think so...


The rugged groom...he wanted to show off how big his mouth his...or maybe he was trying to roar like the lions...I don't know...


The oh so cool...me. :) Have any of you peoples who regularly see me noticed that I can't go anywhere without those glasses? I should get them surgically attached...


...this is actually a really funny shot. This is me chaperoning...:) I can't believe she got this picture actually, I just happened to turn my head and there they were being all cutesy, lovey dovey...I think I got up and walked away when I saw that starting...I don't remember :)


It was kinda warm, and were walking in the sun all day...this is the Barron and the Elizabeth tired...


This is the happy couple looking not so happy...


...and this is the Jessica having a blast...:)


Just to prove we really were at the zoo, here is a picture of an aminal (this is partially for Daisy because her FAVORITE animal is the Elephant, and partially for all my fellow Univ of Alabama fans...ROLL TIDE!!! I will be out there soon...as in, within the next few weeks soon!!!)

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We had our Raisor family reunion this weekend...we spent it up at Mormon Lake Lodge. Mormon Lake isn't really a lake (unlike what the maps and all those physical geographers say). It is a large marsh. It MAY be five feet deep at some points. The real draw to this place are the trees, the cooler temperatures (LOVED THAT), and the animals that live in the area.

I drove up with Kent and Belle Thursday night really late and we saw SOOO many Elk...probably 30 or 40 going up there. I was really glad Kent was driving and that he was being so careful. He really is a good driver. We passed the entrance for the lodge because the directions were horribly bad (if you are going there, call me, I will give you MUCH better directions, especially if you are traveling at night). We turned around and when we got to what we thought was the entrance, we flipped around to get a better look at the sign...as we flipped around we saw this HUGE male Elk. It's head probably stood a good foot above mine, the antlers were probably, what, 4 feet high (they went almost straight up rather than out like most I have seen do...). Really cool. We sat there and watched it. But being that we had passed our turn and we had drunk too much, we decided to get a move on to our cabins.


We made it safe and sound and were greeted by a number of family members, including LOTS of little boys...here are three of them, Brett, David and Dayton from left to right. Aren't they cute? They must be trying to look like Elk...


We had hot chocolate to warm up in the morning...here is Tommy enjoying his scalding cup of cocoa...


Some grown ups were also there. Here are Jessica and Josh preparing to play the game this family has a love affair with: 42. Trivia, other name for this game is Texas 42.


Here is my FAVORITE Uncle Kent. (I am his favorite niece...:)...ok, so we are all his favorites...it is amazing that this family has the ability to make everyone feel like they are the favorite...I think that is how heaven will feel...)


I took some of the younger kids on a hike...they had been out wandering before and had found this sign that said (according to the kids): no trespassing, property of the wild animals. :) Actually it was the National Forest property sign, probably would have been fine to walk around, but it wasn't property of Mormon Lake Lodge, so...the kids were really scared, but I really wanted to get a picture of them around the "Wildlife Property" sign...it took quite a bit of coaxing, and David (Blue Lightning McQueen shirt) wouldn't go near it...so I had them make scared faces.


...then funny faces...they are so good at these!!


We found a tree where half of it had fallen down. I totally posed this picture, but isn't it good??

Monique found a stick with moss on it, and thought it was really cool, which of course it was. She wanted a picture with it. Cute, huh???


The kids found a caterpillar on the ground (seriously, kids have WAY better eyes than adults like me do...I probably would've stepped on the poor guy)...they all loved it. It was pretty cool. We put it on Monique's stick and took it back to the cabins and showed it off to everyone.


Soon after we got back the three little ones decided that it was way too warm outside and took off their shirts. I have this REALLY cute video of the three of them, but it is sideways and I don't have a video editor that I can manage yet...I will try and post that video soon...I may just put it up sideways...no staging, they came up with it on their own...


We heard there was a petting zoo and a place to see real Buffalo so we walked down to the lodge. Here are Dayton and David looking at the Buffalo.


And here is Monique and the Buffalo. The baby to the left is five weeks old.


BTW, my sister came along with us to check all of this stuff out. Here is a picture of Monique, Wyatt, Dayton and baby sister entering the petting zoo. As it turned out, the petting zoo consisted of...


...these two goats. Tommy wanted a picture with them. Poor Tommy, he had that sweater on most of the day in the heat, I didn't think to suggest that maybe a tshirt would be better...


We found a play area that the kids had a great time with. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids have a blast. Above is Brett...he mastered the rope swing real quick.



Tommy, the master of finding cool ways to slide down the slide...


Wyatt trying to figure out the broken handles...I think we ended up putting that up (Janel, I have two REALLY cute videos of your boys, one on the monkey bars, the other on the swings, I will get them to you on a CD or something).


David and Tommy swinging...

And that was half of Friday. The reunion went on until Sunday morning, although we (Kent, Belle and I) left late Saturday night (saw about 4 deer and 3 stupid Elk, one really stupid one who decided to cross right at the last second...no worries, the Elk is fine...and so are we, we didn't hit it)

I had a lot of fun at the reunion. I would post more pictures for the gloating parents, but unfortunately I really didn't take any more. A video that I think I meant to be a picture of Josh and Kayla's boys and it's REALLY short and not a good picture...and then a couple of really dark pictures...so...

I got some of Daddy's pizza Friday night!!! No leftovers ( :( ). But it was VERY VERY good.

Whew. K, I am tired. Night! (Rocketgirl, I PROMISE I will do that tag thing soon...)

Post and Coolest Job EVER and I feel good (duh na duh na duh na duh)

I am boring at the moment simply because I haven't been home very much at ALL...and I won't be until Sunday. Sorry my blog has been RATHER boring...

...I will return to the land of the unboring soon...hopefully...(kinda depends on whether any of ya'll think my posts are interesting or not... :) )

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So to give this post some worth, I just had to send you into the general direction of this really cool guy named Caroll Spinney...74 years old...and has been playing the part of Big Bird on Sesame Street for nearly 40 years!!! Here is a LINK to the story I found about him (hopefully the link works, not sure how long the story will be there...but it's cool anyways). Best job ever. Playing a 6 year old, 8 foot tall yellow bird...love it.

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I feel great! Why, you ask, do I feel great? A number of reasons.

Went home for the weekend and was able to spend Father's Day with Daddy-waddy (yes, I call him that, get over it), cousins Barron and Jessica came along with, I get to see them all again tomorrow at the family reunion, I bought a new outfit AND I got my first ever professional massage...

Oh yeah! Lizbeth's feelin' good (duh na duh na duh na duh)...I knew that I would now...

...sorry... :)

Institute...and Vampires

INSTITUTE was FABULOUS!!! Brother Calton taught (subbed for Brother Wright). To think I ALMOST didn't go. I am kicking myself for being LATE!!!

Bar NONE, he is the best institute teacher I have ever had. He is in tune...it was amazing how every single class I was in with him at ASU my freshman year, he taught EXACTLY what I needed to hear.

I mean, I come home after work pondering over something...and Brother Calton talks about what??? Oh, just GUESS!!! This was a pick your own topic class, and he was subbing, so basically he just was totally inspired to say what he did...so...yeah, it was pretty much awesome. And pretty much the whole lesson went over things I had recently pondered/prayed about...it was wonderful. (Of course, not EVERYTHING, just a lot of things that I had recently pondered...I like to think that it was inspiration...) He is just fabulous anyways...he has a photographic memory...before I even met him he went over the pictures of all the new students at the Tempe Institute and had learned their names...he then came up to me (still, before we had met...) and knew my name and other stuff and walked away...I was rather freaked out initially...then I talked with another teacher and discovered this talent of his. He is a great teacher, an amazing student of the scriptures and the words of the living prophets...

Church is TRUE!!!

....................ps, why else was institute fabulous tonight??? well...

because my friend Chris Reed was there from way back in San Marcos ward days, it was WAY awesome to see him, sat next to him for the class,

MAYBE talked a friend into going to Disneyland with me before I leave to go to Bama, AND...

yes I am moving, but there is this guy here who I REALLY have wanted to meet for a long long time now, and I, yes, I am silly, I kinda sorta really did pray in my heart that I would finally find a way to meet him (I am NOT the sort of girl that goes up to a guy and introduces herself to a guy...not at ALL)...and so it turns out that my friend who MAY go to Disneyland with me is friends with his friend...yay for friend of a friend of a friend!!! So next...no, not next week, dang it!! that's the family reunion! WHY?!? okay, so in TWO weeks I will finally meet this guy...name is Andrew I think...want to know what he looks like? He looks almost EXACTLY like Hugh Jackman (the guy in Kate and Leopold and, well, Wolverine in XMEN...and he is probably in a hundred million other movies). Seriously, they could be twins. Very, VERY good looking.

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K, so this part really isn't about vampires, sorry to disappoint. Actually, it's about giving blood. Can I just say that it is SO important to help out your community, and one way to do that is to donate (if you can). I was able to give blood today, I was hoping to do a power red, but my iron was too low for that so I gave a regular donation. Thankfully I had enough iron to do that! Last time I tried to donate (in December or January I think) I wasn't able to donate at all because my iron was too low. I suddenly became a fan of iron rich anythings...it takes a long time to get your iron level up, not something you can fix overnight, ESPECIALLY as a female.

To boost your iron levels, eat eggs, broccoli, whole wheat bread, spinach, apricots, beef, poptarts (yes, really), enriched rice, beans, cooked oysters (blech!), molasses (best if IN something than by itself), liver, fortified cereal, etc. And take Vitamin C with it!! The Vitamin C helps for you to actually absorb the iron.

Or just take iron supplements. :)

GIVE BLOOD!!!

Picture Gems and Kung Fu Panda

"But I really AM hungry! Can't you see, I am a growing boy...PLEASE PUT FOOD INTO ME!!"

-at his post-baby-blessing-luncheon...I thought it was a Kodak moment, what do you think?



This is from Sunday night...just went wandering around the temple and was taking random shots. Thought it was pretty.

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No spoilers in this one. Just wanted to say that it was very funny, very entertaining, very clean, very fun, and good for all ages. My BF Julie and I took her daughter and her baby boy to see the movie...she usually is quite antsy, and this was her first movie theater experience...she was SO good through the whole thing...got a little scared at parts, but otherwise she LOVED it! Baby was good too, one diaper change and he got fussy at the end...otherwise he was perfect. I stole him from BF when he got fussy and stood out on the side and watched the end of the movie from there...he was just sick of sitting, that's all.

K, so, there was this huge 3D plastic thing of the main character, and Julie's daughter ran to it yelling "Panda!!!" I told her to pose like the panda, and she totally did it near perfect...camera flew out and we tried to get her to do it again...this was the shot I was able to get...seriously, the first time was amazingly good, although this shot is just plain adorable.

The Visit, Uncle Calvin and Prince Caspian

My sister and my soon to be brother in law came to visit for the weekend...ok, the REAL reason they came through was for Emily to meet her future mother-in-law as she is in Tucson for a short time (his family is from the Seattle, Washington area, so Tucson is MUCH closer than Washington)...anyways, they decided to also visit the valley on this trip to spend some time with me and with some of our extended family, not all that were in the area, but seriously we didn't have much time.

We were also able to go to Arizona Bridal and she found the perfect dress and bought it...FASTEST wedding dress shopping trip I have ever been on, and I have been a number of times with my friends and a couple of times for myself...only once when I was REALLY engaged (GIRL, remember? YES, I went wedding dress shopping just for the fun of it with a girlfriend a couple of times).

She actually found the dress that she had seen and liked online. It was a good day to buy it because they had a special going on...she was able to get a tiara, a 'poofy' skirt (as Emily called it) and a bag for the dress...all free. It was great! A couple of alterations, and the dress will be perfect. I am SO glad Emily was able to find the dress she wanted and that it looks so beautiful on her!

Oh, and we ate lunch at Aloha Kitchen with Aunt Nancy, Aunt Dianne, Barron and Jessica...good times!!!

She (Emily) and Ison are now down south meeting some of her in-laws...I hope they are just wonderful! I like Ison more and more. I am glad I am going home next weekend (father's day weekend...couldn't keep it a surprise...dang it!)...it will be a busy time, Emily's birthday, my parents anniversary AND father's day...boy howdy I am glad I am getting paid Friday! (where in the WORLD did I get the phrase 'boy howdy' from???)

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My Grandpa's last living sibling passed away this morning. He got up, went out to sit on his recliner and went to be with his siblings, parents and all others that had gone on before him. What a way to go...

It is so strange to think that that generation in my family is all gone. I remember going to the Raisor reunions as a little kid and all of my Grandpa's siblings were there with all of their kids and such. I love my Great Uncle Calvin...he would sing songs and tell jokes and funny stories...he loved his wife and his family very much, he made that very obvious. I was very sad to hear that he had passed away, but I am glad that he isn't experiencing anymore pain.

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WARNING: Some spoilers are found within the following, so read at your own risk!

I finally went and saw Prince Caspian. It was excellent!!! If you haven't gone, go! I loved it, I really did. I hope they really will do all seven of the books. Prince Caspian is the second of the seven Chronicles of Narnia (if you put the seven books into chronological order, it really is the 4th book, as book six takes place at the beginning of Narnia and book five takes place during the reign of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, or rather within the time frame of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).

What the HECK was up with the love interest?!? That most CERTAINLY was NOT in the book. I don't understand...

Other than that I loved it. They had to change certain things of course because it was a movie. I liked how they portrayed Lucy's role...not exactly like the book but I think it caught the vision of the book quite well. I LOVED the scene with the White Witch!!! Very beautifully done.

Dwight for VP!!! and Jogging Memories

K, all "The Office" fans, all I have to say is

DWIGHT FOR VICE PRESIDENT!

CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO

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Went to Institute tonight and one of my former institute teachers at ASU (Ron Searle) taught his classic lesson on how light, Christ, the word, power, how all those things are all the same thing...I probably had this lesson in every class I took with him, it was neat to have a review of that class.

Every time I think of him, I think of the Sobe explosive that he showed a video of one once during Institute (understand that this is a guy who during sacrament when he was a young man took one of those old crystal radio thingy's and hooked it up to the sacrament tray to listen to the World Series during sacrament meeting...) and it was AWESOME. I am such a pyro, and I seriously want to make one of them sometime...seriously huge mushroom cloud, it looks SO cool! He reexplained all the tricks to it to me tonight.

Every time he sees me, he thinks of Albuquerque and how he wants to move there when he retires or something (which is funny to me because besides the fact that Mom, Dad, Emily and some other good friends live there, I have NO desire to live in Albuquerque ever again for SOOOO many reasons...). He has a lot of horses, and Albuquerque is a very horse friendly city, and really, I could see him and his family living there, so. Anyways.

Fat makes you lose Fat!!! and Ode to my Coworker

K, I have heard things like this, but I found this fabulous article HERE because I am trying to be slightly more healthy and because I dink around on msnbc A LOT on my downtown at work...

Now, if you like oil (granted not ALL oils), nuts, avocados, olives and chocolate, guess what!?! they contain monounsaturated fatty acids (k, I guess they are acids, not fat) or MUFA's and studies have shown that they help reduce fat, specifically the fat around your tummy...and they suggest to have a serving (NOT A MOUNTAIN WORTH!!!) of one of these 5 MUFA filled foods with every meal to help reduce how much fat you have along with a good healthy diet...

I LOVE oil, nuts, avocados, olives, and who here doesn't know how much I love chocolate?! This article made me happy.

(fyi...according to the elliptical machine, I burned off 370 calories today! Yesterday was 333. Today was harder, but once I pushed past the hard part is was easy sailing...getting back into the swing of things...)

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K, so there is this lady that I work with. For a very long time I really didn't like her, and I didn't think she liked me. I still am not sure if she likes me or not, I just don't know how to read her...

Anyways, she recently had to move closer to me, so I of course hear a lot more of her conversations than I used to (I have GREAT ears most of the time, sometimes I have a hard time focusing on exactly what I am trying to listen to though...and I am great at being a little nosy...).

My observations have brought me to this conclusion: she is probably more Christian than most of the Church leaders/teachers/friends I have ever known. Seriously.

Now, she is NOT a member of my Church, I believe she is actually a Southern Baptist, but I am not sure about that either. I know she goes every week, she does Bible study during the week, she is involved with service projects, etc., it's a very involved Church that she belongs to.

I have listened to little bits of her conversations with people at work and a couple on the phone, and I tell you, she is grounded and is just SO good. She gives very good and sound advice and is able to back up her advice NOT from the preacher but from the Bible itself...I have heard her quote her preacher here and there, but most of the stuff she says is from the scriptures.

She was one of the few people on the team that was willing to sit next to the 'trouble maker' on the team, and said 'trouble maker' has since tamed down quite a bit since that move, and I think it is largely due to her. She is very strong, she is very wise, very kind...she can come off as though she doesn't really care for you, but she really does have a very good and Christian outlook on life and she lives it. She really is a good example to me.

And she has the BEST sense of humor!!! I love it!

Anyways, there is my ode.

Good day

I slept 8 hours

I went to work

to bank

to FHE

to gym

And am on my way to bed.

Good day. (I don't remember the last time I could honestly say that about a Monday...)

My Baby Sister...and future Brother in Law

I can hardly believe it...


At the same time, I can hardly believe that this hasn't happened until now...


I mean, truly, she's tall, skinny, beautiful, virtuous, lovely, smart, funny, loyal, devoted, sincere, truly Christlike...


And she's put up with me for all of almost 24 years of her life!

Yeah...see HERE for Emily's blog!!!

Seriously, at the very least, click on the link and watch the video. It's worth it.

Short blog today. I think that news speaks for itself! I am extremely happy and excited for her!!! She is the most spectacular woman I know besides of course my sweet and wonderful Mommy. (I can't BELIEVE I just used the word 'woman' to describe my baby sister...Emily is still 8 years old and scraping her knees and playing with dolls in my mind, when did she grow up?!?!)

Yay, I get to start planning a bridal shower or two, woot woot!