All in a days work

Today I was able to watch most of the funeral services for President Hinckley. I was truely moved by what a saw and felt great peace. After the sevices the BYU channel had many different programs on the life of Gordon B. Hinckley and so we had them playing while the girls and I all got ready for a baptizm. One of our great friends, Iain, was baptized today and we were able to attend and witness this great moment in his life. Jake and Iain are the best of friends however Jake was unable to attend with us because he went hunting with Jeremy this morning to try for the third Saturday in a row to kill some quail.

I have mixed feelings about this whole thing. I am all for Jeremy and Jake spending lots of time together in the great outdoors I just sort of secretly hope they don't bring home any "food". I am not an idiot I obviously do realize that the meat I buy in the grocery store was in fact a living breathing animal. However I really like knowing that the meat I am about to serve to my family was farm raised and feed some quality grain or whatever it is they eat. I do not like the idea of butchering some random wild animal that has been fending for itself and eating who know what. I guess you could call me a meat snob this is just how I feel. Today Jeremy got lucky (yeahhhhh....) he brought home two quail for us to eat (gag). Thankfully he did all the defeathering and gutting out in the wild so it sort of looks like food I am more familiar with. I do not know if I will be able to eat this or not. Lucky for me the little guys are really small so I could go with the old, "It's so special that you caught/killed this fine piece of meat I wouldn't want to take the prize from you. Why don't you go ahead and eat both of them they're so small." Do you think this will work? I will let you know if it does.

Today I tried a little pony tail on our sweet little Morgan. It was kind of cute and kind of pathetic at the same time. Bless her heart she had the total baby mullet thing going on. I was able to get a ver small amount on top of her hair and I think I will try this out again on Sundays and special occasions. She does also have some VERY cute curls. I remember when Jeremy and I got pregnant with our first one I told him I really was hoping for a curly headed little girl. Some of Jeremy's sisters have the best curls and I have always been very envious. Riley came along and although she has lovely hair it is just as straight as mine. Next was Brooke and well lets just say Brooke struggles with growing hair. She will be five in a couple of weeks and her hair is VERY thin, short, and pretty much straight. To quote Riley, "we just aren't lucky". It looks like Morgan might have broken our families hair luck and have that great Clement curl. If you can't tell Morgan is standing in these pictures. She stands pretty good we are just patiently waiting her first steps alone. If at all possible before she starts nursery at church. This little goals only gives her about three more months.

P.S. My spell checker deal isn't working for me on blogger so please excuse any horrible spelling errors. I am known for my bad spelling so I have no doubt there are problems with this post.

They're here!!!

Braxton Reese 6 lbs. 7 oz.
Brinkley Jada 6 lbs. 3 oz.

Our newest Niece and Nephew were born on Jan. 30th at approximently 4:30 a.m. They are healthy and adorable and I just had to share a picture. Congratulations to Amanda and David and their new little angels.

Funeral Services

You can watch the funeral services for
Gordon B. Hinckley on Saturday at 11:00 MST on the BYU channel as well as at
many of the church buildings.

I am the primary chorister in our ward and I ran across this song that was published in the Friend in 1996. I thought it was a very sweet song that I plan on teaching to my kids. I thought I would share the song for anyone who might be interested. You can find the sheet music on the church website.

Cheryl Boyer Hansen, “Gordon B. Hinckley—Constant As the North Star,” Friend, June 1996

1. When President Hinckley was a boy,

he slept outside for fun.

He noticed all the stars would move,

except for one.

2. Discouraged while in the mission
field,

he read these words from home:

“Forget yourself and go to work.”

His heart was stirred to

3. So if you’re discouraged or
confused,

just think of that bright star.

Remember what our prophet said And who you are.

Chorus: Be constant as the North Star that
shines for you and me,

Anchored in the gospel with pure integrity,

Steadfast in your service to God and fellowman.

President Hinckley has shown us that we can.

Till We Meet Again

I have had such an emotional day after hearing that our dear Prophet has passed. I knew that I needed to record some of my feelings about this time for my children to read in the future. For totally selfish reasons I wanted so much to hold on to our sweet Prophet for even more time then we were blessed to have him with us. What a truly inspiring man he is. Gordon B. Hinckley is the essence of kindness, charity, love, hard work, integrity and obedience. I marvel at all of the good he did for the church in his many years of service. Just one example of a lesson I learned from the actions of our Prophet occurred in April of 2002 when Jeremy and I were able to attend the dedication of the Lubbock, Texas temple.

We made our arrangements and got our tickets a couple of weeks prior to the big day. We knew that we would need to leave Amarillo very early so we could get to Lubbock (120 miles away) and drop Jake and Riley off with my cousin Vickie and her family. Our stake was assigned the earlier session of the dedication and even though this was such a joyous time I was feeling sort of bitter about the fact that we had to make this huge sacrifice to be their so early when the members who lived in Lubbock were going to be attending a latter time slot. I even spoke the words out loud to Jeremy that this just doesn't seem fair it was just bad planning in my mind. We woke up very early that morning and I was feeling a little under the weather I had this bad attitude and as horrible as this sounds I considered for a moment cancelling the trip. We got to Lubbock and dropped off the kids and got to the temple in plenty of time in fact we were a little early. Many people were walking around the temple grounds and rumors started circling that the Prophet was on his way over for the ceremony. A sudden wave of emotion enveloped my whole being as I saw a black car pull up, park in front of the temple and then the Prophet and his sweet wife were assisted out of the car. The Prophet turned to the people and waved at us all as he used a cane to walk into the temple. I felt the spirit so strongly just being in his presence knowing that he is the Lord's mouth piece. What a change in my attitude I had as I saw this elderly man who had made many sacrifices to be with us in Lubbock on this special day. President Hinckley could have easily sent another General Authority to preform this ceremony but he knew how important it was to us to have our own temple close to us and he wanted to be there himself as it was dedicated. From this experience I took with me several lessons including the lesson of being where you should be at all times. It is so easy for us to think I won't be missed at church or convince ourselves that we are not feeling 100% so we can catch up with sleep instead of attend a 9:00 am Sacrament meeting. How does taking the easier road ever help us grow? It does not and will never. I also gained such a personal testimony of the love of our Prophet for each of us. At the time of this experience President Hinckley was 92 years old. Standing in the same place as our prophet was a wonderful experience I felt his love as well as the love of our Savior. Everyone did. We will all miss President Hinckley greatly, the words to the hymn "Till We Meet Again" keep playing in my head I believe this is a great time to read those lyrics once again.

God be with you till we meet again;

By his counsels guide, uphold you;

With his sheep securely fold you.

God be with you till we meet again.
Till we meet, till we meet,

Till we meet at Jesus’ feet,

Till we meet, till we meet,

God be with you till we meet again.

El luchadores no es bueno... :(

Another Friday night in Amarillo and another oportunity to watch me some wresteling. I heard some of the kids at school talking about the underground WW(whatever) scene. I decided to check it out even if that meant on my own. The venue for this wrestling happens to be right around the corner from where we live so tonight I waited until Jeremy got home. Tucked the kidos in bed and prepared myself for an adventure. In my mind to make this a sucess and worth my time I had to see a few things:

1. masks

2. stretchy pants

3. capes

and to make it extra special I wanted to see:

1. a little person

2. some sort of hairy dog/man

3. a vendor selling some nice hot corn on the cob

As a deprived gringo my only exposure to this sort of cultural experience was of course Nacho Libre. I looked through my closet to find my best wrestling outfit and finally settled on a hoodie sweatshirt and jeans. I was definitely NOT going to wear any jewelry or freshen up the deodorant (I didn't' want to stick out like a sore thumb). I was ready and I was pumped!! This is a picture of me "pumped" I do NOT have a lazy eye and that would be the "rock on" sign not the "by jove I've got it" hand shape the pinkie is just a little hidden there.

I get there and the lady at the front door tells me it is going to cost me eleven bucks. I was kind of shocked at the pricey entry fee but my people were all expecting pictures so I handed her a twenty and what happens next is still a little confusing to me. She hands me back a five and a one and apologized that she is out of ones. I look at her like this isn't going to cut it and then she says wait a sec takes the change back from me and then hands me a ten and a five. I still didn't get it then she explains to me, "I don't have enough ones so next time you come I will have to get it to you." I was very confused. Perhaps she meant eleven pesos and I totally over paid her. I was in and there were already a couple of guys in the ring fighting. As I walked over toward the crowd and action I was hit by a total funk of cigarettes, beer and a generic bad hygiene smell. Pretty gross but I was glad I choose the no touch up on the deodorant. FUNKY!! The second thing that shocked me was exactly who the wrestling fans were. Apparently wrestling bridges all race, age, mental capacity, and economic gaps. There seemed to be a representative from all paths of life. Grandparents with their small grand kids. Random children running around unattended, very preppy looking college kids, middle aged clean cut "we just finished dinner at the Outback" kind of people mixed in with what I am sure was the homeless community of Amarillo. When I checked out the action in the ring I was totally disappointed, it was a couple of gross white 20 somethings without a mask in sight. "This isn't what I just paid to see!" I don't know what I was expecting but it was all totally fake too. Fake hits to the face and body while the hitter slapped his own leg really hard and loud. Throw in some basic tumble moves and you too can be a "semi-professional wrestler". The sillier you make your "I'm in pain" face the more the crowd eats it up. It was so loud and if your guy gets hurt you boo and hiss at his opponent. People had signs and shirts made up it was a little like a white trash version of American Idol. At this point I was mostly enjoying the fabulous people watching. I had my camera out and I was snapping pictures left and right. I was a little nervous that someone would ask me why I wasn't taking any pictures of the fighters so in my mind I had a cover story already about writing an article for some "online magazine".

After the first fight was over one of the crowd favorites stood in the ring and offered to take pictures with people for five dollars. I loved how the parents, who just seconds earlier were cussing, and flipping off the wrestlers were now throwing their young children up on to the ring to have this sweaty greasy guy hold their baby for a Polaroid souvenir of the evening. CLASSY!! I try not to be judgemental of other's parenting techniques but come on. After the photo session was over the announcer (this is the guy with the suit and microphone for all of you newbies at wrestling) yells out, "I have good news and great news!" The good news was that the main event was about to start and "El Grande" was in the house, the great news was that he had two bags of candy for all the kiddos in the audience. I was a little surprised that even the announcer thought the candy was the more exciting of the two pieces of news. This is when all the little unattended children had to fight off the homeless community for all the free candy as it was thrown into the audience. After the candy was cleared off the floor the lights all started to dim and some fantastic mariachi music started to blare. I knew I was getting what I came for as they announced the next two fighters El Grande verses El Gringo. My mental list came back to me as the guys walked to the ring. Masks CHECK, stretchy pants CHECK, capes... well two out of three ain't bad. I took some pictures of the main event and their eclectic fans but just couldn't stick it out to see the finish. The smells, language and atmosphere was just getting to me. I got what I came for and I had enough to make my report.

It was seriously hilarious but honestly the funniest parts were all of the people as shocking as it is to see big masked, greasy guys in spandex "fighting" each other it was much more shocking to see these parents and what goes on just around the corner from my house. I would say that the pictures and description of the evening should be enough to satisfy most of you.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I have been called out several times by several different people about not updating lately so I guess I will let you all know how we celebrated the late great MLK Jr. I was off work today however all of the teachers had to use today as an in service day. Jake and Riley's school had parent teacher conferences and I was able to visit with both of their teachers this morning. I got wonderful reports on both of them. Let me just stop right here and tell you we live in a very colorful, interesting neighborhood. I often tell people that if they truly want a spooky Halloween they ought to trick or treat in my hood. That being said I was able to meet the mother of one of Jake's friends. She seems very nice and to be a very involved mom (something you can't say about too many mothers at this school). Her name is Pepsi (no she isn't black). I think Pepsi and I are going to try and get the boys together someday. I just love saying her name I smile every time I say it. After I visited with Pepsi (snicker snicker) I hurried home so Jeremy could get to work. The rest of the day we decided to remember the great civil rights leader by watching one of our most favorite movies ever Hairspray (the new version) we LOVE this movie and can sing and dance to every song (when I say "we" I mean the kids and I, Jeremy isn't such a fan). This movie of course takes place during the civil rights movement and although it might not be the most accurate films on the subject you really can't beat the soundtrack. We did a little dancing and singing and then got the house in order and caught up on the laundry. We were suppose to take Jake into his dermatologist for a UV treatment however when we got out to the van it wouldn't start. I guess a door was left open or a light was left on what ever the problem was I needed someone to give us a jump start. I look around the neighborhood (ghettohood) to see if I recognized any one's car so I could ask for some help. I didn't so we were stuck. I had taped some MLK program off of the History channel so I had the kids watched that while I started dinner. No giggles but I did make some mac and cheese for the kids to eat (this was not a planned part of MLK day we just enjoy mac and cheese) the kids also each wanted a jell-o cup from the fridge so the girls all chose a flavor and then Jake looked down at the options and said, "I want to pick BLACK cherry because it's Martin Luther King Jr. day." I thought that was kinda funny. We ended the day out with chocolate cream pie (once again the color of the pie was not intentional part of our celebrations we happened to find it on the "day old shelf" at the grocery store for 40% off) and we talked about what MLK did and what his dream was for our FHE. The kids all went around the table and said how they could help make the dream of everyone being kind and loving one another possible. Riley thought that she could share crackers with Tanashia, a girl in her class.

Well I updated for everyone so no more gripping out there from anyone. This is the boring mundane stuff you have all been missing from my updates I am sure you are all thinking maybe I should wait and update when I have something more interesting to say. Sorry no pictures I didn't think it was really interesting enough to warrant documentation so just use your imagination.

*** I just thought of something else that I need to post. You all remember my girl's night out drag show incident I hope. Well I have discovered (much to my joy) that Amarillo has a very active La Luchadore (Nacho Libre style) wrestling. We are talking masks, capes spandex the whole nine yards. I of course started calling my girls to see who was up for another adventure they were all in so we went a couple of Fridays ago and somehow missed it. The thing starts at 8 and ends promptly at 10 (who knew it would be so punctual?) We got there at about 10:30 and saw the aftermath. Let's just say we will not make the same mistake twice. We will try this again and by golly we will be there on time. Pictures will be posted. Love ya guys!!!***

Guess where I'm headed?...

I am off to San Antonio to visit Emily and her family for little Ellie's blessing day. I will also be able to see my mom and dad, Sarah and her two boys, my aunt Laura, and some of Emily's in-laws. I am so excited that I will be able to meet my newest niece and my newest nephew for the first time. I can't wait to see them both in person. It is going to be a blast!!

I hope everyone had a fabulous (I have been to a drag show so I feel like I can pull off "fabulous") Thanksgiving. We sure had fun with Jeremy's family in Albuquerque. Amanda and David were wonderful hosts and it was a real pleasure getting to know David's parents. I need to finish my packing before my ride gets here. I will report later about my wonderful long weekend with everyone.

new blog format

I changed up my blog look because I hated the old format. The only problem is that in order to get all my links to the side I had to start fresh and retype them all in (you all know I have computer issues). I hope I have not forgotten any of my blogger friends who were on my old list. If I have please leave a comment I did not intend to leave you out. Along that same note I can't seem to find your blog Brooke Thomas. I typed in what I thought the address was but it wasn't right. Please email me your blog link or just leave it in a message here. Thanks guys!!

Happy Birthday Morgan

I can't believe my baby is one today. It went so fast but at the same time I almost can't remember our life without her. Morgan was born on November 17th, 2006. She was born with a serious case of jaundice and had to stay a little longer at the hospital then normal. The nurses all fell in love with Morgan because even though she had to lay on a light bed with her little eye covers on for hours at a time she never fussed a bit. She has the most peaceful spirit about her and was the perfect addition to our family. I love everything about Morgan but some of my favorite things are her funny little looks that she gives to us when she is about to touch something that is a "no-no". She puts her hand out and then looks over to Jeremy or I and waits for us to say, "no no Morgan that's danger." Then she smiles and moves back to her toys. It's a little game that she loves to play all the time. I also love how she mimics sounds. We just just go back and forth taking turns making a sound then the other repeats it. Lastly she gives the best baby kisses in the whole world because they just seem so genuine. She doesn't give them on demand but when she initializes that kiss you know that she is telling you she loves you. Happy birthday to my little angel. I love you so much Morgan!

girls night out

Well it looks like girls night out was the most popular choice and I don't blame you for picking it. What a crazy night we had. Last Saturday I agreed to host one of the really parties that I mentioned before I hate to attend. My work bff started selling for a jewlery company called Lia Sophia and asked if I would host a party. I didn't feel like I could guarantee many sells but I agreed to co-host with another girl from work thinking between the two of us it might be more successful. The party was actually not bad at all. It turned out to be fun actually. The ladies all seemed to have a fun time and a few bought so it was a win win. Two of my closest friends from church agreed to go if we could leave the party and have one of our girls night outs. There are three of us who have been going out semi regularly for a couple of years now and a couple other girls that come on occasion. We love to go out and just talk over our drinks and when I say drinks I mean of course diet Coke for me and Dr. Pepper for Danielle and Torrie seems to mix it up a little she is a little unpredictable. Some times Coke, sometimes a diet, and on occasion she has a water night. We left the party and sat in Torrie's very pimp new SUV (I am horrible at cars I couldn't tell you what kind but it is VERY nice). We started talking options of places we could go on a Saturday night. We thought about movies but none of us could even name a movie that is out right now. Finally we all agreed we could eat and then there was the whole restaurant discussion (you need to know that EVERY time with out fail that we have gone out at night we have gone to TGI Fridays). We are total creatures of habit we feel comfortable with the menu we know the people who work there it is always where we decide to go but we always take like 15 min  to get to that decision. So after the obligatory 15 minutes of, "we could go here" and "we could go there" we ended up at Friday's parked in our regular spot walking in and greeting our regular hostess Samantha. We sat at our regular table and started chatting about kids, husbands (nothing but good stuff Jeremy), jobs, family. It is always fun to catch each other up on our lives. We had to send our poor waitress (who I might add was new to us we had never had her before) away like 4 times before we were ready to pretty much order the usual. We go out as a group probably every 4-8 weeks depending on what is going on in our lives. We love to draw the whole thing out and really take advantage of the no kids thing. After eating our yummy food and chatting for about 1 1/2 hours we started saying how we weren't ready to go home yet. It was about 10 pm and even though we had church in the morning it had been a very long time since our last GNO. We had no idea what to do for fun in Amarillo TX at 10 pm at night for LDS 30+ year old moms. We started trying to think if there were any bars with live music we could go to and hang out but I had to complain that I don't want to go home smelling like smoke because I really didn't plan on showering the next day.

 

This next part is an explanation of my previous statement. Feel free to skip the next paragraph it does not have anything to do with my GNO story.

 

I know this is probably TMI but I HATE to shower. Is that weird? I love to be clean but I hate to do my hair again. I kind of have a math equation all worked out on my showers, basically if I took a shower after 12 noon and I didn't wear make up that day I don't have to shower the next day. If I shower in the evening (after 4 pm) and then put on make up as long as I don't smell like a restaurant, smoke, or anything else funky I consider myself good the next day with a refresh on the deodorant and freshening up the make up. I know I that is kind of gross but it's how I roll. I am sure everyone loves having a copy of my shower/math equation feel free to try it yourself, it pretty much works for me every time.

 

There was no way I was going to any place full of smoke because that would require a shower for me the next day and I just showered at like 5 that night. Danielle had this idea of trying out bingo. I asked if it was non smoking and she assured me that she thought there was a non smoking bingo hall in Amarillo. Torrie and I thought it could be kind of silly and fun so why not. We drove out to the bingo hall that was closest to us and as we pulled into the parking lot we noticed some very nice vehicles and even a couple of limos parked on one end of the old mall that is now an art center/bingo hall. None of us thought these cars drove people here to play bingo and if they were we started feeling a little under dressed. We saw a couple come out of the building dressed very nice so naturally we had to find out what was going on. We get in the building and we hear the 80's classic, "That's what friends are for" coming from some where. We started walking toward the music very curious as to what was going on. When we turned the corner we saw a huge banner with the words "Panhandle AIDS benefit" hung over two sets of heavy double wooden doors. There was also some huge ficus plants and balloons decorating the entry way. I went to the door and saw a police man there. Danielle asked if we had to pay to get in and the man said, "no it's late in the evening at this point you could just walk in if you want to".  We all look in at the same time and see lots of people dressed up sitting at nicely decorated round tables watching a show on a stage. The stage was set up so it had a very long runway and on that run way was a drag queen singing along to the Dionne Warwick classic. I think at this point I literally clapped my hands in excitement. We looked at each other and knew that everyone was game for a drag show. It was very crowded around the run way so it took awhile for us to find empty seats. We sat on the out skirts and looked at the program realizing we missed the first half of the show. At this point we wondered how often they have such events and how we could get on that mailing list. It was so much fun one act after another with the results of a beauty pageant half way through. I was so upset that none of us had a camera I did however have my cell phone which takes mediocre pictures so I asked a lovely little "beauty queen" to take a picture with me. She/He was very obliging and we took a picture together. I have to admit I did have some self conscious moments standing next to this guy. I am a tall woman and that night I choose to go with the full make up and wear boots. I was slightly taller then this man in heels and I started wondering if people thought I was a man. I decided that most tall women would feel a little concerned in my situation. The ironic part to me is that here in the "Bible belt" I was able to randomly run into a drag show where as in crazy wacky California the closest thing I ever got to a drag show was working at the GAP.

 

Jeremy is chomping on the bit to get to the computer and check his fantasy team so I will have to cut this all short (er... wind it down). So no one is confused this is were I stand on the topic of homosexuals. I do not try to "shun" gay people or judge them either. I know what they do is wrong but as people I am sort of drawn to them. I have no close friendships with gay people but Jeremy does work with a couple of gay men and I am not going to lie I love to chat with the younger one. He is so funny.... I know its wrong to label a whole group of people but come on like 80% of all gay men are soooo fun to chit chat with. They make me laugh. Now I have very different feeling about the gay ladies... not such a fan. Am I being a jerk? OK I need to stop before I get in trouble here. Just as a side note on our way out of the show the three of us ran into Jeremy's boss and his *cough* boyfriend... (the whole boyfriend thing is what sort of weirds me out on the gay thing) I know that probably doesn't make any sense does it? They were surprised to see me but I told them we had fun and asked them to keep me posted for the next show.

 

To sum it all up:

 

drag shows = fun

gay men = fun

what makes a man gay = not so fun

hmmmm....

I am feeling a little blogger overwhelmed at the moment. I have several posts that I could write about but I have the whole picture issue going on which really frustrates me and makes me want to throw in the old blog towel. So here is what I am going to do. I am running a little weekend blog contest to see if:

A. people actually read my blog
and
B. which topic is deemed most interesting by my family and friends

So here is how it is going to work. I will let you the loyal readers pick my next blog topic and I will promise to write up the post that you have chosen by Sunday night. Your choices are:

1. My last girls night out which ended with me at a drag show

2. I have been tagged again with 6 strange things about me (I just did something similar to this but believe me I can come up with 6 more).

3. My plans for a weight loss revolution that anyone is welcome to join me on

Ok start voting the topic that gets the most votes will be posted Sunday night.

Well I finally figured out away to post some pictures of the kids on Halloween. Have I mentioned how much I hate my computer sometimes? I hope everyone enjoys we really had a blast going with our Wizard of Oz theme. We trick or treated at a friend's neighbors house and they were sooooo tickled by the costumes (thanks mom you are awsome!!!) that they grabed their camera and took a picture of our troop. I hope everyone is doing good. I really wish I could post pictures without creating a Smilebox but until that happy day comes this will have to do:

Make a slide show, scrapbook or ecard