Winding Down

I'm tired, in fact it took me 5 tries to type the word "I'm" at the beginning of this sentence. I woke up at 4:45 and thanks to a mewing cat and a snoring husband I couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up and clocked in to work. After that was done I wasted a bit of time, then watched No Reservations which was okay, but kinda slow. I should have just taken a doggone nap. I kind of took the day off from homework as I am a bit ahead on my reading, at least I am ahead for Friday's reading, and from here on out things are going to get majorly ugly as far as school work goes.

In church this past Sunday a talk was given on the talk from conference by Dallin H. Oaks entitled, "Good, Better, Best." So tonight I am putting this into practice. I am tired and want to sleep but Bonnie D. Parkin is going to be speaking at a stake enrichment night. Then Harold scheduled home teaching and one of the families that we visit (we are companions due to the ward missionary calling) agreed to let us see them and we haven't been able to get into their house before.

Good: Getting some sleep.
Better: Going to hear Sister Parkin.
Best: Going HTing to a less active family who has finally agreed to let us in their home.

I'm feeling good about the decision, now it's time for my second wind to kick in because I am dragging.

They are having a graduation fair at school this week. I get to go order my cap and gown tomorrow. Hard to believe it, but this old girl is finally graduating.

On that note, the old girl part....The other day I entered one of my classes and a couple of the older ladies were talking and they turned to me and asked how old I was and I answered, 38. Then I asked them how old they are and they answered 40. I was astonished. They seem a lot older than that, okay not A LOT older just kinda older. Now I am worried that I look as old as they look or seem to me. I think they may seem older to me because they have significantly older children than I do. They must have started younger than I did. But I can't help thinking that I am fooling myself when I think I don't look my age. I am okay with being 38, I really am. I guess I just thought that most people figured I was a bit younger than that. 35 maybe? I would be okay with being eternally 35. I don't think I have issues with getting older, but when stuff like that scene in class happens I wonder if I am really freaking out about aging.

When I told this story to a HT family last night they said I don't look 35, but they could be just saying that to be nice so I would cut Harold's super long HT lesson shorter.

Time to start taking Centrum Silver and investing in Oil of Olay I guess.

Book Review: A Wrinkle in Time

I know, I know, two posts in one day. You should all be so lucky!


I read this book today and I really liked it. A little odd but a great story. A young girl named Meg is an outsider at school, looked upon as kind of dumb, but in reality she is quite smart, she just gets frustrated by not being able to do her homework the faster way (she is particularly good at math). Her parents are scientists and her father has not been seen or heard from in about 1 year. Meg's younger brother is also thought of as a "moron" because he doesn't talk around the townsfolk, but he is actually an amazingly brilliant 4 year old who has the vocabulary of a college professor. They make friends with a local popular boy who is also very smart and all three have special gifts. They are taken on a quest to find Meg's father and save him from the grasp of an evil they have never experienced before. Classic good versus evil, but quite a good Christian take with references to Jesus and God. I liked this book. Quick read, great message.

P.S. Check out the new link to the right: Power2L-A Great Read

Random Sampler

So I watched two movies, one last night and one today. Last night's movie was Singles 2nd Ward. The original movie was kind of dumb so it wasn't like I was expecting anything great with this movie, and I really only picked it because it was the cleanest looking movie at Red Box. Harold laughed out loud a couple of times during the movie, but at the end we were both just left feeling empty inside. It was a hollow movie and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

The second movie I watched today was what I am calling research for my term paper due at the end of the semester for my capstone English class, Non-fiction literature. I watched the edited version of Capote. I have been doing some serious online researching about the term which Capote phrased, "nonfiction novel." Since In Cold Blood was the first book I really responded to as a reader during this class I figured I should find out why I responded and probably the genre, nonfiction novel, had something to do with it. I know the movie wasn't all fact based either, but fairly true to life I think. However, I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone unless they were extremely interested in the subject matter: The book and the author. Otherwise, skip it. I can see why Phillip Seymour Hoffman earned an academy award, how could he not?

Now I am off to shower, finally, and start the new read for my YA class. I finished Island of the Blue Dolphins and while it was semi interesting I am not going to bother with a review. It takes about 2 hours to read, so if you are interested in reading about a girl who is left on an island by herself for 18 years, go for it.

Also, I got a C+ on my YA short research paper. What the heck? He massacred me punctuation and my works cited page, neither of which are my strong suits. Apparently I need to take better advantage of the writing lab before I turn papers in. The problem is that I have ZERO time for this, ZERO I tell you!

Here is the start to my official countdown to graduation: 8 weeks and 3 days until total completion and even the boring graduation ceremony is over. YEEHA!

Scrabble

Is WO a word? Probably not, but it got me 20 points and my kids didn't challenge it. The bonus of playing with the kids; if mom lays a word down they figure it must be a real word. H had a Sunday night priesthood meeting (Don't get me started) so the kids and I played Scrabble. Herein lies my problem with this game. After about 3 or 4 rounds the kids were having a hard time finding words that worked with their letters and the layout of the board. This means that I was playing for everyone. Let me just say...I don't enjoy playing Scrabble Solitaire. But I did enjoy playing with the kids. They are pretty cute, although they are supposed to be in bed right now and someone is playing the song from Hercules (I have often dreamed, in a far off place, that a worldwide welcome will be waiting for me....) on a recorder in their room. This works out for Harold because he needed someone to scratch his back and since they are awake anyway he may as well exploit their talents. (I hate scratching a back that is clothed, my fingernails on fabric gives me the willies.)

My scripture for the days is Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." Think about this scripture in relationship to our bodies hungering for things, physically, emotionally. But is it the spirit that is really hungering and needs to be filled?

Book Review: A Separate Peace

This book is about two 16-year-old boys in prep school, Gene and Phinaeus. They have a friendship/rivalry where Finn is naturally athletic and Gene more academic. The story is told through the eyes of Gene and takes place in the early 40s when WWII is on and the boys think and talk a lot about the war and whether or not it will last long enough for them to enlist. However, the boys are protected to a certain degree from the harsh realities of war by being at a boarding school and are even separated from the high school seniors who are soon leaving for combat. The other juniors at school are in awe of Finny and his athletic abilites and his ability to seemingly talk his way out of any misadventure simply by his charasmatic truth telling. An "accident" takes place and no one knows exactly who caused it but it has lasting effects on both Gene and Finn.

I didn't love this book. I did like the ambiguity surrounding the accident. Who really caused the accident? Was it on purpose? How will the boys recover? Maybe because it is a book about boys I wasn't that into it. I can see how great the author is and how his book stays on the list of YA lit classics. This is a quick read and I would be happy to discuss it if anyone decides to read it.

Book Review: In Cold Blood

Okay so this book is famous, it is popular enough that several movies have been made about it including Capote starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in which he won the best actor award in 2006. I haven't seen this film because of it's rating but now that I have read this book it makes me want to see this movie, the toned down edited version.

Before I get into my opinion of this book I would like to say that over the past couple of days as we have discussed it in class several female classmates have voiced the opinion that this book is so dark they had to "Play the soundtrack to The Sound of Music" to get back their happy thoughts. Um, okay. Granted, this book's subject matter is dark, I didn't feel that the book was dark. This book traces the steps of Dick and Perry as they plan and execute the murders of a family of 4 living in Kansas. In the first section of the book there is a parallel story telling as the family and the murderers move towards the fateful moment. You know what is going to happen and who is going to do it, but not how they do it or why or if they get caught or how. Of course the WHY is the big question and I won't answer any of these questions for you here. There are inclusions of psychiatrists, town members, jailers, investigators, etc., all of which are so insightful and real.

This book was thought provoking for me. Well written, novel-like in its literary execution. I don't know a thing about Capote, though I have heard a few odd things about him, but he did a dang good job on this book. I highly recommend it, but apparently it is not for the faint of heart.

My Opinion

Last night I was invited as the primary pianist to sit in on the primary presidency meeting to give my two cents about music needs. I went into the meeting telling myself to keep my mouth shut because 1. I am not the chorister and 2. I have opinions about everything and a lot of times my mouth runs off with my strong opinions and that can hurt people. So I spent at least 1 hour sitting there, looking thoughtful, laughing at the appropriate times and generally just trying to keep warm because the heat had not been turned on in the primary room. Then it happened. The president starts talking about sharing time and starts handing out printoffs from the internet from a non-church website. Well, it's a website with the church's name in it, but not lds.org. I have very strong feelings about using ONLY the church's website when preparing lessons. I feel that if the general primary presidency was inspired to come up with the ideas then I am going to use them and nothing else. At one point one of the ladies says she is confused about something and I pop off with "Doesn't The Friend have sharing time ideas anymore?" Ooops. There it is. My opinion overflowing and bubbling out of my mouth like a a rabid animal. Another lady says, "Jeanna was a stickler about using The Friend for sharing time." That was a nice way of putting it. At this point I can feel the flush in my cheeks, not from embarassment but from this need I have to tell everyone just what I think and why I believe my thoughts are superior to everyone else's. Yikes. Can somebody please stop me? The president, bless her heart, just said, "Tell me about that." So I proceeded to tell them exactly why I think using The Friend is so important. But here is the deal, I know I come off looking all high and mighty, like my reasoning is based on spiritual ground and therefore is unshakable. After some discussion I could tell that they were understanding what I was saying and were very open to it. However, I still feel bad. Maybe it isn't that I have to express my opinion, but maybe it is because I stifle myself for so long that by the time it comes out it is forceful and like a slap in the face instead of a kind suggestion.

Anyone who knows me knows this about me. I have opinions. I like to share them. And in many cases I come across as less than charitable. In fact, last night after I got home I got a call from Karen and her exact first words were, "I need to ask your opinion." My exact response was, "I ALWAYS have an opinion, ask away."

I think that voicing what I think is healthy on a lot of levels, but maybe not so healthy for interpersonal relationships with acquiantances. Now that I think about it I am probably way to open with my opinion with my family and close friends too.

I think the only time my opinion is really great is when I am asked to tell a friend whether or not an article of clothing looks good and she specifically asks me to tell the truth. That I am good at. If it looks awful I tell her. If it is okay, so-so, I tell her that. But if it is terrific I tell her that too.

The moral of this story is that if you want an honest opinion I will give it to you. Every time. Just be specific and tell me that it is honesty you want, otherwise I will gloss over the truth.

Glossed over Truth: That new shirt looks great!
The Cold Hard Truth: Oh honey, that shirt makes you look like a beached whale who needs to get more sun.

Glossed over Truth: Great new haircut!
The Cold Hard Truth: Yikes, what were you and your hairdresser thinking? Terrible cut, terrible color. Not so many layers next time okay?

Glossed over Truth: Nice talk today!
The Cold Hard Truth: I was so bored I don't remember a thing you said.

You get the idea. Unfortunately for H he is on the receiving end of most of my cold hard truths. Are you going to wear that on our date tonight? Dude, get a toothbrush. Do your hair, it looks terrible.

The good news is that if you ask for the truth and I give a compliment it is sincere. For instance, H looks great in his olive colored shirt and red shirt. Very, very nice. He looks excellent in his suit. When he gets his hair cut and doesn't get it cut to the quick he looks terrific.

So even knowing this about me, H still doesn't trust me when he says, "Am I as fat as that guy?" and I tell him no. But if he IS as fat as that guy, I will tell him yes. And I expect him to do the same for me.

Wow, and I thought I didn't have anything to blog about today. Boy was I wrong! (Again, the cold hard truth, even I can admit when I am wrong.)

5000 Hits

I saw that I was getting close to 5000 and thought it would be fun to do a spotlight on the person who was my 5000th visitor. So the other day, Valentine's Day as I recall, I get on my blog and realize....I'm my 5000th visitor. I would highlight myself but I am pretty sure that is what I have been doing for months now. So Congratulations to the person who visits my blog the most......ME!

For all you other visitors out there, thanks for coming on by. Feel free to sit a spell.

Tomorrow is President's Day and therefore we get a day off. Yea right. I get to work (because my company is switching transcription software this week and we are very, very behind because of the preparations and the recent wave of influenza that hit Utah County), study for a midterm in YA Lit which I am feeling very unprepared for, and in between all this keep my hubby happy because when he has a day off he wants to "go somewhere."

H's definition of this is to get out of the house. He gets edgy when he sits around, whereas I am happy to do just that. I called myself lazy today because I don't have to be 'doing' all the time, but H says that I am 'content.' Yep, that is exactly it, I don't have to do anything or go anywhere to be happy. I can get on the computer, watch a DVD, read a book, call a friend....but apparently these things don't interest H. He has to GO-GO-GO!

So my day off is really one of the busiest days for me. Yes, I am throwing a pity party so come and join me. If you have a "day off" tomorrow tell us all about what you plan to do.

Blog Gripe

Before I begin my gripe, I would like to post a disclaimer. I love my family and friends, each and every one. DNA related or not.

I hate music on blogs. I do. I happily check all my favorite blogs several times a day. I know this makes me a freak stalker but I enjoy keeping up and blogs are the safest internet surfing I know. At least the blogs I visit are. But when I click on a favorite blog and all of a sudden music is blasting at me, loud music, most of which I don't recognize because a. it is country or b. it is current, I get edgy. I hurrily click Fn-End which is my quickie mute button.

Can anyone explain to me the reason music is on blogs? If you want to declare what your favorite songs are, you could post a link for anyone that is interested. Or you could just make a list so that we can read it and go, Oh, nice pick, I like that too. Or, What the heck song is that?

Plus, when a video is posted then I have TWO audio sound bytes blasting my ear off in unison. This was of course before I realized music would be playing on the blog and the video downloaded the same time as the music.

I will probably end up getting some very upset responses to this blog entry, but I really would like to hear the reasoning behind the blog music. I know there are those that will disagree with me and I am way fine with that. Because when all is said and done, I will still read your blogs because I LOVE reading your blogs. So, keep the music on, don't change the way you live your blog life on my account.



This is me minus the tongue ring and the immodest shirt.

I prefer loud music in cars. I blast that baby, especially when I am alone. I am sure I make quite a pretty picture for all other cars driving by as I sing along, in muted fashion to those around me, to KT Tunstal's Suddenly I See. I also enjoy other classic artist such as Neil Diamond. I don't care what people say about his sing/speak way of interpreting his art, but I love that man. SWEET CAROLINE, bum, bum, bum. Good Times never seemed so good. SO GOOD, SO GOOD! I have my father to thank for my Neil-love. I really dig the Nottinghill soundtrack, though I don't own it. (Hint for Harold: This would make a great gift!) I have never really been a go out and buy a CD kinda person. The new iTunes is the way to go in my opinion, pay for the songs you like and only the songs you like instead of an entire album (saying album dates me, I know it does) of artsy fartsy, keep the producer or artist happy crap. I just want the 2 or 3 songs and I'm out.

I also blast the music when it is just me and the kids. The kids love it. Harold on the other hand doesn't always agree with my music choices so sometimes when I choose to do this in the car and he is in there, I get this pursed lip look as he tries to ignore my singing (yelling) at the top of my lungs to songs by Neil or others. Has anyone else seen this look? It's funny. Especially when I am the cause.

Hearts

Our very first Valentine's Day together was in 1995, about 6 weeks after our wedding. We decided to go to 49th Aero Squadron, a restaurant right by the airport where they have headphones and you can listen to the airport tower talking to airplanes, and they had a large window facing the airport. The perfect place for my plane-loving husband.

The restaurant had a "special" menu for V-day. If by special you mean a limited selection with jacked-up prices. Plus we got a booth that was way far away from the window and couldn't really watch planes.

This began our disenchantment with V-day. Today I let Harold off the hook because we have a fun getaway trip planned next month so I wasn't expecting anything. But still, my dearest got me some roses, some dried mango (love it) and a card with an XOXO on it (big kiss, big hug, big kiss, big hug).

Despite the made-up holiday that seems completely ridiculous to me most of the time I am grateful for the opportunity to tell my loved ones just how much they mean to me.

Love you Lima, Sav and Mack. My whole heart belongs to you.

Beauty

I had a great time in my nonfiction class today. We talked about beauty, truth, reality, and love (among a few other things). We had a great discussion about what beauty is. We read Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee.

The book is about sharecroppers in the 30s in Alabama. This book was achingly beautiful to me. Well, not the book, but the people of whom Agee wrote. Their lives were stark and hard, filled with abject poverty. The pictures in this book break your heart and make you want to take these people into your arms just to let them know that someone cares. These people didn't know any other life than a legalized form of slavery. They had nothing in the world. Broken trinkets carefully pieced together sitting on a dirty piece of cloth on a mantle. They displayed calendars with beautiful women who live in excess. They went about every day without shoes and slept at night with all manner of vermin.

Even though I could smack the author for his declaration that he was not trying to display a piece of art, and because he spent an entire section with not one period on any page so it was exhausting to read, just as I imagine their lives were to live. Never ending, brutal, not able to catch a breath. It was a difficult read.

As I thought about this book and about beauty I thought a lot about my husband and children. I sat on the bus for 50 minutes and pondered what about them made them beautiful to me. It wasn't their faces, their bodies, the color of their hair or eyes. It is their story. The lines in Harold's face that I know came from worry, his hair and the way he can never put it against any pillow without it immediately revolting and going in all directions, only to be put back together by a bit of water and his fingertips. It is the crooked teeth on my son that I mentally will to grow straighter so that we don't have to pay for braces. It is the sprinkling and smattering of freckles on their faces. It is during sleep when both arms are propped behind a head in a smug, smirky manner. It is a body that is maturing and becoming more womanly. The way she looks at me when she thinks I am giving more love to him than to her. It is the cracked hands in the winter that require Vaseline and cotton gloves to keep them from bleeding. It is the eyelashes that are so long and luxurious that if they were to touch you would feel like the finest feathers. It is the singing in the shower, the constant popping off with movie lines that make us all bend over in fits of laughter.

There is so much more I could say, so much more. Think about the beauty in your life.

Book Review: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith

I have read this book before. My MIL gave me a copy to read a few years back and I really liked the book. The good news is that I have such a horrible memory that I can read a book and a few years later forget major plot points. This essentially allows me keep my personal library quite small and this smallish library will keep me happy well into my golden years.

This book is a coming-of-age tale of Francie Nolan, a girl from Williamsburg (a slum in Brooklyn, NY). Francie is a fun, thoughtful, well-rounded character of depth and strength which she gets from her mother and a sensitive side which comes from her father. We start the book when Francie is in the summer of her 11th year. She aptly describes a day her in life in the first 6 or so chapters, the collecting of junk to make a few pennies each week, the penny candy bought from her new-found riches, the stale bread her mother has learned to cook with finesse, struggling to eat, live, work, and keep warm in the winter. This story spans from when Francie's parents meet and marry to when Francie goes off to college at the age of 17.

I know this book is a classic so my review doesn't exactly shed any light on this book, but I highly recommend this book. It is delightful, sad, fun, eye-opening, and touching. There is swearing, but as Francie explains these words are used as terms of endearment from a people who aren't educated enough to know the difference. No harm, no foul in my opinion.

Happy Birthday M

Yesterday was M's birthday. (this is a pic from christmas) I was so busy yesterday that I didn't get a chance to blog about my one and only son. He came into the world at Orem Community Hospital in the wee hours of the morning, weighing 10 pounds 2.5 ounces. I remember the doctor saying, while I was lying there half out of it, that hey, this baby must weight at least 10 pounds. What? I knew he was off his rocker and at that point I didn't care what that kid weighed, I was just glad he was out. Sure enough, he came out a bruiser! Originally we were going to name him Christian. After calling him that for a couple of hours and after my mom, Carrie and Julie had left the hospital Harold turned to me and said he didn't think the name was right for this boy. I agreed. We started scanning the phone book for possibilities. We didn't have a name book with us because the name had been settled years earlier, our first boy would be named Christian. It turned out that M was born on the anniversary day of my grandfather's death in 1976 and his last name was McGiven. I liked the idea of using the first part of his name. At that point there were girls being named McKenzie so we had to be careful. I am not sure how it came up but one of us said how about M? We both loved it. M's middle name is H's grandfather's middle name. It was a fitting tribute to our boy who came out with all the grace of a truck and to my grandfather and to Harold's grandfather.

M may have come barreling into this world without much delicacy and he continues to love ALL sports and cannot quit moving unless he is asleep, but he has been a sweet, sensitive boy. Let us take the scout motto and see how my M fits:

A Scout is...

Trustworthy: If he says he is going to do it, he does it.
Loyal: He loves his family with a fierceness and a dedication that amazes me. He insisted on spending birthday money on Sav when he went shopping.
Helpful: When he is motivated, he is a great helper.
Friendly: He has lots of friends and wants to play all day long.
Courteous: He is sensitive to his mother's and his sister's feelings.
Kind: He worries about other children, especially the underdog.
Obedient: He tries very hard to be obedient. He knows what time he is supposed to be home after playing and watches the clock faithfully so that I can count on him to be home exactly when I tell him to.
Cheerful: He rarely gets angry, but when he does...watch out! But overall he loves life and has a wonderfully cheery disposition.
Thrifty: He is a great saver. He likes to spend too, but can see long-term goals and will save his money in order to obtain those goals.
Clean: He is a boy, so he gets dirty, and sometimes smells like nasty old socks, but where it really counts, on the inside, this kid is a true moral compass.
Reverent: Nope. Sorry. He has never, ever been reverent. He has so much energy in him this is a true struggle for him. But I don't mind, all I know is that the older he gets the more he tries to be reverent.

As you can see we are a blessed family. There are times when I/we get down that there we weren't blessed with more children. But let's be honest....we got the cream of the crop, the best of the best, the creme de la creme. We love our little family and we wouldn't be complete without our beautiful M.

Post Script

I know Mitt Romney caused some of the buzz that brought out the voters on Tuesday, however I could overhear a few conversations in my little polling place in Payson and there were people there to vote AGAINST Hilary and those who wanted to vote FOR Obama.

I called our local voter's registrar person, or whatever they are called, to volunteer for the next election and 1. Apparently these people get paid, and 2. This was a county wide problem.

I am still going to fill out an application and see if they need my help at the next election.

Side Side Note: Katie McG I got an email about your blog being locked down but can't find it and haven't been able to access your blog for a while. Email my google account at gunkymaria@gmail.com and let me know how to get in.

My Civic Duty

Earlier today while speaking with Harold I told him that I needed to run over to the school and vote. Harold talked me into waiting for him, which was fine, but I prefer to go earlier as a general rule.

Harold got home just after 7 p.m. and we headed over. I knew there was going to be trouble when we pulled up to the school parking lot and there were ZERO parking spaces in the stalls and ZERO parking spaces on the street. It gets worse, as we drove around looking for a vacancy NO ONE was exiting the building. Harold commented that maybe something else was going on at the school but I knew better because both our children attend that school so if there was an activity I would have known about it. I thought there must be a gunman inside holding everyone hostage until we all declared ourselves democrat and voted for Hilary. This gunman would of course have been a raging postmenopausal woman cranked up on hormone replacement therapy. No such luck. We entered the doors and when I asked how long the wait was a nice gentleman stepped forward to inform us that the wait at that point was 2.5 hours. You read it right two and one-half hours. We exited the building got back into the car and went home.

No we didn't shirk our duty, we had to go home to get our son. We had left him at home with the assurance that we would be back in 10 minutes. Since that was not going to be the case we had to go pick him up. I also brought along theory readings for one of my classes, filled up a mug with Diet Caffeine-Free Pepsi, grabbed a pencil and ran to the bathroom.

We went back to the school and proceeded to wait two and one-quarter hours to vote. All this because whoever makes the decision on how many precincts participate at each location decided that there only needed to be two voting locations in our entire city. And at our location there was only ONE master book with names in it. And this one book was in one location, as in it was not divided into A through E, F through K, etc. A through Z it was. Not until 2 hours had passed did someone birth the brainchild that maybe the book could be divided into at least two sections. At one point when we peaked into the cafeteria to see how things were going we saw 4 voting booths EMPTY. The kind elderly folk running the master book couldn't find one lucky voter's name.

Dear Payson City, I have suggestions for smoother voting in the future:
1. Have multiple voting locations.
2. At said locations please provide at least 5 books for check in.
3. Have the kind volunteers be a little younger and thus a little more spry and with better ability to hear.
4. Provide Democrats and Republicans separate voting areas so that no fist fights break out. (Okay, there weren't any fist fights, but I was getting edgy enough to find the nearest person voting for Huckabee and give them a good one-two punch.)
5. The little stickers provided that say, "I Voted Today" (with the "V" in voted being a checkmark in a box) should really read, "I stood in line for 2.25 hours to vote today."

As we were walking to our car I gave a firm lecture on the right/privelege we have to vote in this country to our son. I informed him that he was required to vote at every election from the time he is 18 and never to miss. I consider it an honor and a privilege to be able to stand in line for two hours at a Payson polling place so that my voice can be heard. What a grand country we live in. Not only do I get to vote, but I get to voice my opinion about how badly this particular voting experience was without fear of recrimination. We are truly blessed.

God Bless America.

No Television

About 4 years ago, maybe more, maybe less, I can't remember, we stopped cable service. In truth the cable service stopped us. We were one month late on a cable bill ($12, which was overlooked) and our cable service cut us off. We called them up, apologized for the oversight and were told that if we wanted to continue cable we needed to pay them a reconnect fee of $50. There was no way we were going to do that so we decided to go without television for the summer and probably connect back up in the fall. We never hooked back up and even though I am huge television addict I have had no regrets about not getting cable/satellite in our house. The one thing about being an addict is that the best way to get away from your addiction is to go cold turkey. Also, during every holiday season I am so glad my kids aren't inundated with advertisements for things they do not need.

The only times I wish we had TV back is during General Conference. We usually have to invite ourselves to a friend's house to watch and that is fine but enjoying the sessions in the comfort of our own home would be nice.

Well since I got my laptop computer and got everything re-loaded onto it (it came to me used and unloaded) I now have the ability to watch television via sites like abc.com, nbc.com, tlc.discovery.com, fox.com, etc.

I have just spent the last almost 5 hours wasting time in front of my computer watching stupid television shows. One of my latest favorites is Kitchen Nightmares on Fox. Chef Gordon Ramsey, who has the foulest mouth I have ever heard (his profanity gets beeped out), goes into failing restaurants and shapes them up. It is so fun to see the lazy good for nothing chefs or restaurant managers or owners get whipped into shape by this world renowned chef.

However, wasting this much time staring at the laptop has given me a headache as well as a flatter butt. What was I thinking? I have 200 pages to read by Wednesday and I just blew some serious time. Now when I complain to Harold about not getting my homework done he will not be able to show me any compassion because I wasted enough time to last a whole week. In addition, I have to work tonight typing and that means another 4+ hours staring at a screen.

(Picture me banging my head against a wall chanting...stupid...stupid...stupid.)

I did this of my own free will...

Becky challenged me to take this little quiz and since I have seen this around on other sites and thought it would be a fun one to try out, here are my answers. I will do a quick quevaluation afterwards.

Questions about Harold and me.

How long have you been together?
Married 13 years.

How long did you date?
Dated from end of April 1994 to mid August, broke up for six weeks, started dating again early October, got engaged October 24, 2007. (best guess)

How old is he?
He is 38. He is 5 days older than me.

Who eats more?
In public, Harold. In private, me.

Who is Taller?
Harold.

Who sings better?
It might be a toss up. We both enjoy singing but I wouldn't say either of us is superb.

Who is Smarter?
Another toss up. But Harold definitely has a WAY better memory. So, I would pick Harold.

Who does the Laundry?
Me. But the whole family usually folds and puts away together.

Who does the dishes?
After a family dinner we usually all work on it, until the kids sneakily drift away. Sometimes after a particularly grueling meal Harold will do all the dishes for me.

Who mows the lawn?
Harold. Thank goodness. I have never mowed a lawn in my entire life.

Who cooks dinner?
Me.

Who drives when you are together?
I prefer to drive, unless I am tired, then I prefer Harold to drive. His driving is a bit scary to me, so I have to be half unconscious to deal with it.

Who is more stubborn?
We are both stubborn.

Who kissed who first?
Harold kissed me, after me convincing him that it was time.

Who asked who out?
Harold asked me out by sliding on a wheeled chair over to the fax machine where I was standing. We went to Olive Garden.

Who Proposed?
Harold. I foiled his plans a bit and he didn't want to wait for his plans to be perfect, so we got engaged at Tony Roma's.

Who has more friends?
I do. But Harold is catching up. Harold definitely knows more people and way more people love and respect him.

Who has more siblings?
We both have 5 siblings.

Who is more sensitive?
I cry at dumb commercials, so that would be me. Harold laughs at me while I am crying at dumb commercials, so I would say he doesn't have a sensitive bone in his body. :)


Analysis: I feel like things are pretty equal with H and me. I was just thinking at church today how lucky I feel to have found someone who loves me so much and treats me so well. I definitely got the cream of the crop.

My Nephew(s), our new VP!

Here is Nic, bottom left corner.


This is Zac.


It's a toss up. Who will our next VP be? Doesn't matter to me, I would vote for either one.

Aren't my nephews handsome?