Thriller

Every Monday night at the Hutchison's, the YSA (young single adults, 18-30, in the LDS Church) gather for FHE (family home evening). Brother or Sister Hutchison come up with an 'ice-breaker'...or rather, a getting-to-know-you question that everyone has to answer.

Well, Brother Hutchison came up with the one last night: What is your favorite Michael Jackson memory or favorite MJ song...

Evidently I made quite the impression on the YSA when I first moved here...I learned a LOT of the dance to Thriller around Halloween that first year...bought the DVD from the Number One's Album that he put out with the music videos for all the songs...probably worth a bit of money right now, but I ain't selling it! Well, a YSA dance came up, Thriller came on, and yes, I, Elizabeth, danced to Thriller. And, as I found out last night, me dancing to Thriller is Amber's first memory of me. :)

So to honor the late genius Michael Jackson (yes, I say genius because he was...he had and continues to have an incredible influence on pop culture, let alone pop music and dance...more than most people I think really realize), I wanted to share with you this youtube video that I found...I can't even imagine how much time this guy put into making it...

So...what is your favorite memory or song of the King of Pop???

ABC...easy as 1 2 3...

1. Ed McMahon: LOVED him...he and Johnny Carson were the best paired duo on television for 30 years. I remember watching reruns and watching the VHS collection of The Tonight Show's best...he will definitely be missed.

2. Farrah Fawcett: Beautiful, talented, strong, courageous...and one of Charlie's Angels...I think in many ways, at least from what I know from what could be incredibly bad sources, she was a good woman...what a fight she put on with her cancer...

3. Last, but definitely not least, Michael Jackson. I really am mourning his loss. He wasn't just a singer. He wasn't just a dancer. He figured out the art of entertainment, and had the world at his feet. A real shock today at work when, at almost the exact same time, the tv in the waiting area and my boss's sports talk radio reported that Michael Jackson died. I won't forget where I was when I found out...I mean...wow...and what a career. He was truly one of the few out there who could sing, dance AND act. ALL music groups need to take some notes from his music videos...

I can't say enough about him. He really did amazing things...and yes, I will mourn his loss.

I will mourn the loss of all three of them.

Adventurous...

I don't water ski. I don't water board. I have been known to water tube.

I have now embarked on the world of knee boarding...

Me starting out...you start out with legs in the water, body on the board...you are supposed to pull your knees up onto the board...

Instead, I decided to stretch out my arms...well, I did try to pull them up...I am just SOOOOO weak...my abs were SO sore Sunday and Monday...(actually, I was in a bit of distress in this picture because my fingers were smooshed between the board and the rope...I was afraid I was going to hurt them!!!)

...but alas, stretching leads to this...

In the end, it turned out alright. :) At least I came out smiling...

Daddy Day

Happy Father's Day to all you papa bears out there!!!

Dear Mt St Helens...

Please don't decide to blow what is left of your top off...at least, not today or the next couple of days.

You see, my baby sister is up there with her husband and some of his family.


They are camping.


Which means it would take them longer than normal to run away because they are 'roughing' it. Not that they could run away if you blew your top, because the gas, ash and what-have-you would reach them faster than a speeding bullet pretty much. So just don't do it again today.


I like my sister a lot...


in fact, she is the only one in the world who really understands me,


because she has been there...


growing up right there with me...


the whole time I have been here on this earth, minus two years. She and I in many many ways are complete opposites,


and we are both experts on getting on each others nerves.


But we love each other very much,


and I really would like her to stick around until we are both old.


So...yeah...if you could pick another day to blow your top (IF you are ever going to blow your top again, that is...), I would VERY much appreciate it!

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Iddlebett

(btw, Happy Belated Birthday Emily!!! Sorry I didn't do your birthday post, I was camping with a bunch of teenage girls...)

Tollhouse Cookie Dough RECALL

So, I know a number of you actually eat the cookie dough rather than the cooked cookies when you buy the tubs of cookie dough from the store...

Well, if you bought any Nestle Tollhouse cookie dough recently, there is a recall on the dough...evidently fellow dough eaters like yourselves (and for the record, I am also among the ranks of dough eaters...that has been dinner on more than just a few occassions) have gotten rather ill and some even hospitalized due to eating the dough...

Article HERE.

Do me a favor...return it to the store for the refund and make some cookie dough...use SOFTENED butter, NOT melted butter, NOT margarine...makes all the difference in the world...and think of it this way: it accentuates the curves...:)

Google...

Um...yeah, so all of you probably went to Google today at some point, right?

Well, if you noticed, the usual Google logo wasn't there...and in its place was this:


...in commemoration of Igor Stravinsky's 127th birthday...which is today.

Igor Stravinsky is the composer of the piece of music I am writing my thesis on.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly SHOCKED when I opened up my browser at work today and this popped up.

Why the caterpillar? Well, I am not sure about that, to be honest with you...but the bird is obvious (Firebird)...the rock and flowers could also be from 'Firebird' or perhaps Les Noces...or even Le Sacre du Printemps for those who have no idea what the ballet is really about...or a few others...still working on the caterpillar...

Ha...after writing and publishing this, I did another search to see if someone had analyzed the Doodle and found the Doodler himself explained it HERE...the man needs to be a little more thorough in his artistic research...Le Sacre du Printemps, or rather, 'The Rite of Spring' is about the ritual dance of a young woman who dances herself to death before the commencement of Spring...pretty flowers and a caterpillar hardly come close to even touching that...at least 'Firebird' wasn't totally misinterpreted, although it is not quite right either...

Father's Day...

Dad: if you actually read this blog, just hold off on reading this for a couple of days...:) Love you!!!

To All Else: Here is your official reminder that Father's Day is Sunday:

FATHER'S DAY IS SUNDAY, JUNE 21ST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are still trying to come up with a unique gift for your father and you really feel obligated to purchase something, may I suggest the following website:

www.perpetualkid.com

Seriously, check it out. I was minding my own business, taking a 5 minute break from the mountain of filing that was before me yesterday (I conquered it today, thank you very much!), was on google product search (GREAT way to waste a few minutes of your time, it has a list of things people are searching for below, and if none of them interest you, just refresh the page, you get a whole new list...awesomeness...) and clicked on 'ice trays' and then clicked on a cool looking ice tray that led me to the website above. They have a section just for 'father's day gifts'. That is where I got my Dad the best gift (pretty sure he doesn't read this...) :



Those of you who know my Dad...yeah, I know, awesome gift, right?

Those of you who don't know my Dad...he has a 3 car garage full of 'toys' that all involve cutting wood...which toys often spill over into the house amazingly enough...AND he is the official family pizza maker...he makes the BEST pizza dough EVER...seriously, I used to work for a pizza place, and I have had my fair share of pizza from all sorts of walks, including New York...none of it comes close...

So yeah. Don't forget your Daddy's...they are important too...I hope and pray that each of you at least has a good father figure in your life, or had one at one point. Fathers are SOOOOOOO important. More important than I think most people realize...

AWESOME!!!

Someone who attended Girls Camp has committed to being baptized!!! BEST NEWS EVER!!!

Oh, and I lost 2 pounds over the course of the week. This is awesome too, but the news above is even BETTER!!

K, back to your regular programming...

Things I Learned At/From Girls Camp

1. I can survive on 3 hours sleep every night for a whole week
2. I can sleep in the back of my car with a little extra padding
3. My car can handle a little off-roading
4. Teenage girls will love you forever if you give them candy, glowsticks, water balloons and whoopee cushions.
5. All girls must wear braids at girls camp, no matter how long or short your hair is.
6. There are a lot of versions of the camp songs I knew from when I was at girls camp.
7. There are advantages to tents that cabins w/o AC don't come close to.
8. The stake leaders, even though they get the rooms with the AC, stay up just as late if not later than the rest of the girls talking and laughing very loudly.
9. How wonderful my GPS is.
10. It is useful to have a Walmart nearby the camp.
11. My bed is the most comfortable bed on the planet (at least, for the last 1 1/2 days it has been...)
12. There is a Girls Camp smell...which I can't describe. You have to experience it to know it.
13. How inspired Sister Ripley was to call her two counselors to this presidency...we all have very different talents, and they all come together quite brilliantly.
14. Next year, they need to emphasize that the girls need to wear long pants on the hikes (lots of girls got poison oak on the hikes).

There are a number of other things I learned, but these are what came to mind...I survived. 9 mosquito bites, barely anything of a sunburn, feet that were throbbing from standing/walking ALL DAY LONG. Saturday morning most of the muscles in my legs seized up on me at least once. Thankfully, the girls and their leaders cleaned up the camp pretty well, so we were able to leave by 9:00am Saturday morning! There were a lot of small miracles that occurred during the week, including the weather and how flexible the other stake was with the schedule and more importantly the kitchen. It worked out quite well!

Got about 13 hours of sleep yesterday, and already had a 3 1/2 hour nap today...getting caught up. I feel much better today though. Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up refreshed...I have a weeks worth of work waiting oh so patiently for me at the office...oh the joy! :)

Cheers!

Girl's Camp

The next post you will get from me (unless I am struck by something at Church today...I can't believe it is past midnight already...) will be after this lovely thing called Girl's Camp. It will be a lot of fun. I am coming prepared (bug spray, citronella bracelets, topical antihistamine, oral antihistamine, small waterproof first aid kit, sunscreen, water balloons, etc.).

I plan on getting very little sleep, so I am hoping that the moment I get home Saturday afternoon I will crash until I have to get up for Church the next morning...

It will be a lot of fun. It will also be a lot of stress...we discovered a few days ago that there was a scheduling error, so we are having to share the camp now. From what I understand, this is the best group we could've asked for this mistake to happen with, so I am grateful. Hopefully all will still go well...

Dogs...

First of all, I am much better. Broke the fever the following day officially (it went down, went back up, and then went down again...now getting over the leftovers...)

Now...I have decided something. I have had cats most of my youthful years. I really do love cats. I have thought once or twice about getting one again, but being rather poor I decided against it. I have always thought that I would own a cat or two in the future...

I never truly hated dogs, or were scared of them. I wasn't 100% comfortable around them when I was younger, though. My sister was very afraid of dogs though. When I was a baby, my parents had one, but I have no recollection of him. My Dad always wanted another dog, but my Mom put down the law...not unless he builds an area in the yard just for the dog and he (Dad) would be the one taking care of it, including feeding, cleaning, walking and whatever else-ing it. Hasn't happened yet. :)


I lived with a lady here in Tuscaloosa for a couple of months who owned these girls...and I warmed up to the idea of having a dog. They didn't yip in the middle of the night at a squirrel (at least, I didn't hear them...), they were always happy to see anyone who came through the door, we went on walks and the dogs just made the walk that much more fun to go on...

All of my fellow front office coworkers own dogs and talk about them all the time. I saw a girl jogging in my neighborhood who had the most beautiful Cocker Spaniel (I think that is what it was) I had ever seen.

I imagined doing that with a beautiful Cocker Spaniel, and liked the idea A LOT. If I am not going to come home to someone, at least I can come home to something. And something that I can care about and that will love me back.

I am going to get a dog.

Now to move on with my life so that I can actually get one. :)

Miserable Day...

Fever of 100.1, BAD aches and pains all over, sore throat, ears plugged, BAD sinus headache, no appetite, very little sleep.

I had to work today. I am taking all of next week off for Girl's Camp. I am taking another week off in July to go home.

...must get better before Monday!!!

Bending...

I LOVE our Stake Young Women's President. We were just informed of some drastic news which is going to be so tough to work through concerning our Stake's Girl's Camp...which begins next week. Somehow we will, but my word this is going to be a doozy...

The words at the beginning of her email:

I feel in life that we must be willing to bend. Sometimes we are asked to bend at the last minute. This is one of those times.

I love how calm her email began. This is going to be a learning experience for all of us...

We have a lot of 'bending' to do in just 5 days...we may all need some oxygen before the end of it.