Book Tag

First off, I wanted to mention that annie is hosting a candle give-away, so stop by her blog to find out all about it.







Awhile ago I got tagged by Tonya for a little book game, and I actually forgot until I saw it on nancy's blog. Here's how to do it:

1. Pick up the nearest book with at least 123 pages

2. Turn to page 123

3. Find the 5th sentence

4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog

5. Tag 5 people (Like Nancy, I will ignore this rule and tell you if you want to play along, go ahead)

The fifth sentence reads: (oh, you're going to love this) "What do you think would happen if you tried?" On my favorites post, I wrote how I liked "self-help" books. This sentence is from a book entitled: "Rock Solid Relationships" by Wendy L. Watson.

Sidenote #1: Well, I'm out of the running in the family pool. I'm not alone there are lots of us who haven't a chance. Heidi is in first--if Memphis wins, she wins it all. However, if Memphis plays NC in the final game and NC wins, Neal will win. If UCLA wins, Brent and a friend will be tied. If Kansas plays Memphis in the final game and wins, Kiah will win. If Kansas plays UCLA in the final game and wins, Heather will win.

All I really know is, I CAN'T WIN!!!

Sidenote #2: My first day off of Seminary and I couldn't sleep in ; )

Another Random Post

Sorry, but this is very random--

I'm wondering does Spring Break start today or is it Monday??? It makes me feel better to think it starts today ; ) But I've got to ask does this look like it's Spring Break??? No, this picture was not taken today--it was taken on Wednesday and we are expecting more snow tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. This is part of the reason I am looking forward to going to Utah next week and then going on to Arizona. (My only regret is leaving Kyle at home. Although I know he will have a great time hanging out with his friends.) I'm hoping by the time I get home it will really be SPRING!!!





We had special snacks today at Seminary--I made hot chocolate and served muffins and fruit. I sure missed my chocolate today!!! I missed it even more on Easter when I couldn't have any of those Reese's peanut butter eggs that I love. I must admit I was really motivated by the girls on "Biggest Loser Couples". Wow!!! I keep thinking I really need Jillian yelling at men when I exercise--maybe I'd put a lot more into it.

Today has been a great day because I've been able to really relax and not work on a lesson for tomorrow. I'm going to get started and on Kiah's graduation albums. I have tons of pictures to look at--lots to scan and print. I have to make sure I stick to the task and don't sit and take trips down memory lane as I look at each picture.

I'm afraid there may be weeping and wailing tonight at our house--yes, it will all be me if Texas loses its game against Stanford. (Allan has Stanford picked and I have Texas) It's important to both of us--obviously I need Texas to win since I have them picked to win the tournament and if they go out tonight, I will be very sad ; ((((((((
In our family pool, we have 10 people who have picked North Carolina and everyone is very close; however, if Stanford goes into the final four, Allan could win.

I'm looking forward to the Young Women's Broadcast tomorrow night. I always love going and hearing the counsel given to our young women.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Do you have any special plans?

Some of My Favorites

A few months ago Lauren did a week long posts of her favorites. I LOVED IT!!! I decided I'm just going to do a single post about some of my favorites, starting with:

My favorite foods:

When it comes to meat, I love prime rib--especially with some horseradish ; )

I love fruit--especially pineapple, strawberries, watermelon (actually any kind of melon), papaya, and green grapes

As you all know I have a sweet tooth, and I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!!

My favorite things to do:

Aside from spending time with this guy











or with any of these guys





I love to: Eat, scrapbook, travel (I love the outdoors), be with friends, take pictures (not have my pictures taken) and study the scriptures. And, of course, now that I am a blogger, I would have to add that to my list of hobbies.

My favorite places to visit:

It goes without saying that top on my list would be the places my children and grandchildren live. Goodness knows, it's SUPER whenever I have a chance to visit with any of them. We have the best time together. We have had some great family reunions at some great places: Park City, Utah;










Disneyworld, and Herringtons which is a little place located in the Sierra Nevadas. When the kids were little one of our favorite places to go was a place called North Star. Some great memories there.













Obviously, I love to visit any of these. We have a tradition that whenever we travel and it's possible we go to see the temple. I have an album that contains pictures of us in front of some 45 temples--the kids know that in order for the visit to "count" they have to get out and take a picture on the grounds of the temple ; ) It's always fun when we're in a foreign country to try and get the taxi cab driver to find the temple--several times they have taken us to chapels. (Obviously, Brent and Heidi have kept up the tradition because back in 2004 when they went to Japan with Neal and Amanda, they made sure they took a picture standing on the grounds of the Tokyo temple.


















I have had some great experiences visiting some pretty amazing cities:

Paris--of course, the highlight for me was visiting the Louvre.







Sydney

As well, any of the Hawaiian islands hold a special place in my heart. I can hardly wait until we go this summer to celebrate my MIL's 90th birthday. I know Kyle, Brent and Heidi are very excited.

Some of my favorite books:

I read a lot of self-help books (believe me I need LOTS OF HELP!!!) I loved The Peacegiver and still refer to it quite often.

Other books that I will always remember (even though it has been many years since I first read a couple of them): The Diary of Anne Frank, The Hiding Place, and Believing Christ.

I don't think I could list my favorite movies, there are too many. I love all kinds of movies--romance, drama, action. There are some movies I enjoy watching over and over. I just don't think I could pick one or two.


Sidenote: The NCAA Tournament has been so great. I didn't watch all the games but I enjoyed every game I did watch ; ) There were some real nail biters. Games start again on Thursday. I have Texas picked to win the whole thing--highly doubt that will happen.

Sidenote #2: I think my Seminary students are really tired and I know they will all be happy when they have Spring Break next week. (We've been studying Isaiah--learning lots--sure hope they are ; )

A Very Special Easter

We had a beautiful Sacrament Meeting yesterday--the talks were great, the music was wonderful, but what happened during the meeting and the discussion about it during Gospel Doctrine was never to be forgotten.

Let me explain: After his 7:00 meeting, Allan came home to pick up Kyle and I and we all went to our Ward together. It was so nice to have Allan at our Ward for Easter. I took my usual spot in the front row. Kyle was up at the Sacrament table and Allan was on the stand.

The Bishop got up and began to welcome everyone to the meeting. Immediately, there was some noise--a young man (I had no idea how old) began to yell out different sounds. The Bishop continued. Opening hymn, prayer and announcements were given. Throughout it all this young man continued--at times he would sort of scream. The sacrament hymn was sung and the young men blessed and passed the sacrament. I was amazed at their composure as this young man continued to make sounds--they went on as if nothing was happening. I sat in my seat with tears streaming down my cheeks for this young man and his family.

After the sacrament was passed the noise stopped and the meeting continued as usual. The closing prayer was offered--I turned to Kyle and told him what a great job he and Alex did on the Sacrament.

Allan and I went to Gospel Doctrine class. The lesson began and we started discussing Jacob and our responsibility to magnify our callings. This is where the discussion of this young man began. Because I had never turned around, I didn't know who it was or what was going on. Allan explained that it was a man with his children. The man had been a minister in another Church and was coming to learn more. The sacrament was very important to him, and he didn't want to leave until he had the opportunity to partake. Apparently when all of this began the Bishop had slipped a note to Allan asking what to do. Allan told him to have one of his counselors get the missionaries and see if the man needed help with his son. As the counselor went off the stand, apparently the man was already in the foyer and so the counselor spoke with him and let him know that he was more than welcome to attend the meetings. He just wanted him to know that he and his family were loved. It was so wonderful to hear everyone talk about how (as each was waiting for the Sacrament) they were praying for this young boy to be able to calm down and praying for this family to feel love. I was so touched to be in this very special class as well as a very special meeting.

The rest of our Easter was lovely. I must admit I felt a little sorry for Kyle Saturday night dying eggs all by himself--it's sure more fun when you have other brothers and sisters to help. And then on Sunday morning he got up and found his basket. We had 4 of the Elders over for Easter dinner. It was great.

Happy Easter

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

I saw this today and it was so powerful. It was so much better than anything I could put into words.

Five Things

Many of you had this 5 things meme on your blogs and it looked like fun, so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm supposed to try to answer these 5 questions with something that nobody else who reads my blog would be able to use as their answer. So, let me know how I do:

CD I Own: The soundtrack for Somewhere in Time.

Book I Own: Does anyone have: The Complete Book of Bible Trivia by J. Stephen Lang?

DVD/VHS/whatever I Own: "Little Nemo" (no, not "Finding Nemo") When Brent was little, he loved this one.

Place visited: The Blue Lagoon in Reykjavik, Iceland Allan had gone on a different tour, so I had a stranger take the picture--gotta love the hair ; )

Piece of technology or any sort of tool I own: The only thing I can think of that no one other than my friend, Jess, has would be a car that has a plug. (Our cars have block heaters and during the winter we plug our cars in at night or when we are out for any length of time and the car is parked outside and heats the engine making it easier to start ; )

Sidenote: The basketball tournament has been great so far. Watched the games yesterday while I checked out some blogs and did a little cleaning here and there. I was quite nervous during Xavier's game--certainly had them going beyond the first round. I was so sad that BYU lost--we were doing our service at the shelter, so I didn't get to see them play. (I don't think it was on here anyway) Also, glad I didn't see the Duke game--I wouldn't have been able to watch. My brackets are looking great--I only lost two teams yesterday ; )

A Disclaimer

This is a post that I had sitting in my "draft" file. As I read over my "Pride and Joy" posts that I did for each of the children, I realized it is obvious that I prefer to focus on the positive rather than the negative. I would rather tell you about the wonderful things my children have done--what good does it do any of us to hear all the dirt?!? Also, I don't think it's fair to share their heartache with the world--that is up to them. So anyone who thinks I'm one of those people who sends out a Christmas letter with all the glowing things my children and grandchildren (and in a few months, my great grandchildren) have done--THAT'S ME!!!

I remember one of my sisters commenting a couple of years ago that I don't have any grey hair because I don't have any problems. Yeah right. (I was about to list some of the things that we have been through, but forget it ; )

So, Yvonne, what brought this on. Well, as I was blog lurking the other day, I came across a somewhat sarcastic post about people who do this sort of thing--write glowing letters about their children. I thought: Wow, that sounds like me. I thought, gee, I wonder if that's what people think about me??? Then I thought, well that's just who I choose to be.

I started wondering if perhaps I was out in left field, but then read this quote by President McKay: “Every man and every person who lives in this world wields an influence, whether for good or for evil. It is not what he says alone; it is not alone what he does. It is what he is. Every man, every person radiates what he or she really is…It is what we are and what we radiate that affects the people around us.
“…If we think noble thoughts; if we encourage and cherish noble aspirations, there will be that radiation when we meet people, especially when we associate with them.”

So perhaps it is o.k.

Sidenote: I went to the mailbox yesterday and there was this GREAT package from Nancyface and Lauren. You guys are great. Thank you so much. I loved it ALL!!!

And right before I left for Mexico I got these great Chocolate pop rocks from Klin and I forgot to thank her. Such a great thing--what a sweetie. Thank you so much.

March Madness

I am so excited because yesterday was Selection Sunday. The NCAA Tournament starts this week. We are big College BB fans--well, we're tournament fans. So I'm grateful that this Friday is Good Friday and I don't have Seminary because I can watch ALL THE GAMES ON THURSDAY AND FRIDAY and not have to worry about preparing a lesson. (Of course, we have started studying Isaiah, so that will definitely mean EXTRA STUDYING ; We do have our Service Project at the shelter on Thursday and it will be great because I won't have to worry about what time we will be getting home.

Back to basketball--I keep track of our family "pool". I actually do it through CBS Sportsline, but I also do it manually. (It's that control part of me that has to double check ; ) The majority of my kids and grandkids participate as well as a few friends. It's interesting how some make their picks. Some are die-hard fans for Duke--right Heidi, and BYU--Allan. (Allan always jokingly says he's picking BYU to go all the way. Fortunately for him, he gets smart before the picks have to be submitted.) I remember when one of my granddaughters was younger she made her picks based on the color of the uniforms. This is our 9th year of giving out an award to the winner--and believe me it is a coveted award for many. One of my grandsons has won it twice--way to go Brandon. LET ME MAKE IT CLEAR--THE AWARD IS A PLAQUE (really just a frame with a typewritten award that has the winner and previous winners listed ; ) Of course, bragging rights are always included!!!

We have had the Championship party here on the Monday of the final game for several years--this picture was from the game in April 2003. I don't know why Kyle is not in the picture) This year we will not be home. It's probably a good thing because one of the guys that comes to the party now has a big screen TV--we do not. I would be very sad if the party wasn't here--aren't I a spoiled little brat?!? Well, I guess not spoiled enough...I don' want the party here bad enough to go buy the big screen TV!!!

Sidenote #1: I guess Allan and I really missed out on our vacation. I notice that they now have "newd" cruises (I really don't want people googling "that" to find me)--now at the beginning perhaps some wouldn't thinks it was too bad, but can you imagine what it would be like at the end of 2 weeks of all that eating--REALLY UGLY!!!

Sidenote #2: I'm giving up chocolate again. My eating has been horrible since I've gotten back from the cruise--maybe if I have to be accountable to you all I will work harder ; )

My Grandma Stop

When we booked the cruise and knew that we were flying through Los Angeles, I talked to Allan about stopping off to visit the family in Auburn. (When Jason graduated from high school two years ago, Daphne and Stephen asked me to do an album or two of his growing up years. I figured they would want the same thing for Kiah and needed to get pictures. I hate to have them put all those pictures in the mail, so figured this was the perfect opportunity for me to go through the pictures with Daph)

Jason and his puppy, Winston, picked me up at the airport. It was great to have one on one time with Jason. (That's a picture of Brandon with the puppy ; )








We basically had a quiet night. Daphne was working so Stephen, the kids and I went to grab some dinner and then it was off to Target so I could get them Apples to Apples. We had a ball playing. In fact, we stayed up a little too long.

Because of Daylight Savings time Sunday morning was tough for me. I set the alarm on my phone, but did it wrong and used the wrong time zone and ended up getting an hour too early. This actually was probably a good thing ; )

A grandma gets to do a lot of great things--while I was with the kids I had the chance to go with Kiah and her parents when she received a special blessing. It was a wonderful experience. She was so prepared. This was the first time I've been there when one of my grandchldren received their blessing.

Sunday night we went to Daphne's moms for dinner. After dinner we all played Apples to Apples.

Monday morning Daphne and I got busy going through pictures, pictures, and more pictures. So many memories. I am really excited to get busy on this album or these albums for Kiah.

Daph, Drew, Hannah and I went to Hannah's gymnastics class. She is so fun to watch. She is a very strong little girl.













After about an hour we left and went to the park--it was so fun. Drew loved being out. I laughed so hard while he was on the swing. He just really enjoyed it. I did a little video clip--wish I could figure out how to put it on the blog so you could all listen to his little gigle. Stephen and Brandon were at the park--Stephen's Little League team had practice and Brandon was there to help.













After we went back to get Hannah it was back to the house. Drew got his scooter and went around the little circle. I had a great time being out there while he went around and around.








Then it was time to decide where to have dinner. We all decided to go to PeiWei for Chinese food. It was delicious. A couple of shots from dinner.















Lindsay and Jason had a night class so they didn't go with us, but after dinner, J called to see if we wanted to play Apples to Apples--I'd say they're all hooked ; )

WE'RE BACK

Well, actually I'm back--Allan flew home on Saturday and then left yesterday to go to Salt Lake. I got home last night. He will be back on Thursday. Then we're here for a couple of weeks.

The cruise was great. I have to say I expected it to be warmer--sounds silly coming from someone who left snow. LA was lovely but when we got on the ship on Saturday and had the two sea days, those days were kind of cool. Once we got into Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo--the weather was quite warm--actually hot! I loved it. We saw lots of whales. I really should have done a whale watching trip, but too many other things to do. One day when I was out sitting on the balcony getting some sun there were so many little dolphins jumping. I could never get a good picture.

I've basically written all about Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, but haven't said too much about Cabo. We were very surprised when we went into Cabo. The last time we were there was 1999--wow, have things changed since then. It was so much prettier than I remembered. While we were in Cabo my sweet little hubby bought me this beautiful necklace and earrings. He's such a sweetie.














The rest of the cruise was packing and getting ready to come home. I even did laundry. It is funny on a 7 day cruise, most people don't do laundry, but I just wanted to get underwear done so Allan didn't have to come home and worry about it.

I'll write about my stop in California in my next post. I so enjoyed spending time with these guys (and their parents, too)









I managed to get up this morning for Seminary. I bought the kids some fun little souvenirs. I got the boys some funny little drum things and the girls a little trinket box. It was great to be back with them. We talked about Psalms this morning--so glad I got through all 150 of them while on the cruise ; ) I had 4 books with me on the cruise--did read part of one of them "Eat, Love, Pray", but really spent the majority of my time studying Old Testament. It was great to have time to really talk with Allan about a lot of our lessons.

Sidenote #!: I've just got to ask--do these look like the faces of great grandparents??? Well, we are going to have our first great grandchild sometime in October.











Sidenote #2: Hey, if you want to watch Kyle's band performing at the Battle of the Bands, go to YouTube and watch them at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UOshzSaQcHs&feature=related He is on the right--and has a solo at about 1:25

Greetings from Mazatlan

Greetings from Mazatlan. The cruise is half over ; (((((( It has been wonderful. I’m just loving this time with Allan. We have been very lazy—not doing a whole lot, but having some great times and eating way, way too much. I have almost finished Psalms—which I will teach when I get back home. I had also gotten behind on the Hinckley challenge, so I’m getting caught up with that reading as well.

I appreciate your understanding my not getting around to visit all your blogs. I’m sure my blogline reader has a ton of new posts for me to go read—and I will. I miss reading your posts. (I did just check the blog reader--wow! You guys have been busy posting ; )

I just wanted to share picture of the activity Allan and I did yesterday.



We went on a jungle canopy adventure in the Sierra Madre. (The trip there in our little truck (?) was quite an adventure—we even got a flat tire. Once we arrived at the reserve, they gave us our instructions and then up we climbed. Then we began. We used a series of zip lines and traveled through the jungle canopy about 90 feet above the ground!!! I have to admit at the start I was really, really afraid. (After all I am a big chicken ; ) But, I am so glad I did it. At the end, I even rappelled out of the tree (about 75 feet down). We ordered a bunch of pictures which will come in the mail—why they wouldn’t just sell us a CD at the end is beyond me???

I kept thinking of how I’m going to use the experience in a Seminary lesson—such wonderful Gospel applications. Believe me, I was grateful for all those safety’s they used, grateful for the guides who I trusted, and grateful for prayer!!!

Today we took a hike to a lighthouse—HOW BORING!!! Actually it was pretty good. It was a lighthouse located about 512 feet above sea level. We took a little tram from the dock to our “bus” and then we started our hike up some winding dirt paths until we got to the last 327 steps. (I was breathing pretty heavy by the time I got to the top ; ) The view was spectacular--you can see our ship in the background. It is the first one on the right.

The drawback of all the walking we have done the last couple of days—I think I can eat EVERY DESSERT I SEE!!! I hope they don’t have to roll me off the ship when the cruise is over.

Tomorrow we are in Cabo San Lucas. No excursions planned--so it should be another quiet day.

I sure hope all of you are well.