Thin Mints to the rescue!

I am so board with my life today - all I seem to do is work! I drive to work and sit in front of a computer three days a week, I work at home for another three days, work, work, work! I was simply in a pity party mood today.

Then I remembered that I still had one pack left of Thin Mints in the freezer!

My life is still boring, but for these next 5 minutes while I am eating my allotted 3 thin mints, everything seems right in the world!

What was on the big screen...

So it just dawned on me that in 90 days from today I will be half a century old!!! Seriously, that is creepy to think let alone verbalize or type.
But I am not going to dwell on the sorry state of things in this blog - rather I am going to show you some of the more interesting things that were happening around the time I entered the picture.
So lets start at the movies.

Miss Marlyn Monroe has a spicy flick out, but I would assume that GrammaLainie and Grandpa Ray did not go to see it! The who could forget the killer movie Ben-Hur. I rented this from the video store on one of our last LONG road trips and could hardly get through it ... it's like 4 1/2 hours long. But it does have that great gladiator scene with "Moses" whipping the bad guy. I know that my folks must have seen this.




Then there was the comical movie Pillow Talk - with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. I just can't bring myself to put a clip on this blog however - it all just seems so wierd.

And Lastly, I love Alfred Hitchcock movies so I am delighted to know that North by Northwest was also produced in 1959. The stud Cary Grant is in this little flick, and I actully still like to TiVo this movie when it comes on the 24 Hour Oldy Movie channel ---- oh no, what am i saying!!!

Mini Lesson on Determination

It's the little things that sometime give us the most insight- far more than a protracted lecture. I have been learning many lessons over the past several weeks - most of them will be from someones off the head comment but when that comment is looked at a bit deeper I have found many inspirational insights such as "My guitar has only 5 strings but ya know I go downstairs and still play it!"

.....Good Will Towards Men

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. — These are the words of the angels announcing the birth of Jesus to humble shepherds, according to the Gospel of Luke (2:14)

I heard a radio show on Sunday that prompted me to commit myself to action this month. I had never really thought much about the scripture quoted above, read it many times but not really stopped and thought about how to apply this in my life. I cannot really cause or bring about peace on earth, but I can bring about some good will toward men/women, through my own actions this month. So I started yesterday, and I stopped my car and went over to a lady in the CostCo parking lot who had the hood of her car propped up and asked her if I could help her!!! Yes I really did that!

So each day this month I am going to do what ever thing I can, big or small to show good will toward men. Why not join me?

I will share these little things with you once a week, just so I can keep myself accountable to my commitment.

What I am thankful for....

When the kids where little we would each take a turn say something that we were thankful for before we would begin to eat our huge Thanksgiving feast. Since the dinner is not at my home this year, I do not know if I will be able to vocally express what I am thankful for - So here is my short, non inclusive list, of what I am thankful for this year. Only 10 things.

1. I am thankful for modern communication that, while my chicks are scattered, allows me to communicate with them at any time.
2. I am thankful that my kids accept my phone calls.
3. I am thankful for a husband that lets me take control of the remote and put on yet another re-run of Jon and Kate or some home improvement show.
4. I am also thankful for a husband who never complains.
5. I am thankful to have bountiful family in close proximity.
6. I am thankful that I was taught in my youth to follow the Prophet.
7. I am thankful for Chiropractors.
8. I am thankful for the scriptures, and for the insights I gain when I feast upon them.
9. I am thankful I could visit Europe, that I could see the amazing things that I saw and have such great memories of that trip.
10. I am thankful for a family who think I am great, who care about me and encourage me, and support me when I am down.
    

The Invisable Women.... a little Inspiration

Empty Nest AGAIN!

Yeah, Yeah, I know that last year was the BIG year of being without kids in the house but today I find myself alone in my big empty house and kids FAR away, yet again, and a husband on a plane to China! And I will be honest, I do not like it! I do not like it one little bit!!!

Place Your Vote!

In the Early 1900’s, Mary Elizabeth Turley Oakes lived in Bluffs, Illinois. Grandma Mary was a member of the WCTU, an organization which worked to reduce alcoholism and drinking of alcohol just prior to prohibition. It is very possible that one of the women in the below picture is Grandma Oakes. Which one is she? VOTE TODAY!

Head em up & move em out!

So my third child is packing up her room again today! And actually it is the first time in a while I am able to see the floor!

It's Shark Week

For some crazy reason we can not figure out, our family knows when it is SHARK WEEK on the Discovery channel. Actually we do watch the shows and get all grossed out. In keeping with the spirit of Shark week I have decided to show some pictures of what our family might look like IF WE WERE SHARKS! So enjoy!

Where in the World is....?

Well the European Trip is actually on! After 3 years of work and about $38,000, the European Wheels are ready to sell. So Kenton and I are packing our bags - only 1 check bag for the two of us that weights under 44 lbs. ! Do you think we can do it?
We will be visiting England, Holland, Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Spain in 25 days! Yikes. We plan on posting pictures and descriptions every few days so check back with us here.

Muzzled while Driving Miss Daisey

I think I may just give up!!! Today I read in an online “Mormon magazine” that “Driving is a magnificent test of our Christian character. We are generally quite anonymous, we have lots of power, and we are fully goal-directed. If anything will demonstrate our spiritual maturity, I suppose that driving will.”

So my driving skills are now to be added to the list of things I am going to be judged by? If this truly is the case that my eternal real estate address is to be determined by how I drive on the freeway then I may as well give up now. I mean, I do believe that you can tell a lot about a person by how they drive. But as for me I do not think a fair judgment could be made on my “Christ like Qualities” by my under breath monolog with fellow drivers. So I admit that I honk the horn, even multiple times if I have to, and I do talk to other motorists when I think they need a talking to, like the person who has their turn signal on without knowing it and as I courteously wait for them to make their turn I get a bit irritated and simply let them know that they may need to retake drivers ed. So I guess the big mansion will not have my name on it after all!

New Recipe Blog

Sharee's easy days of eating someone else's cooking are fast coming to an end, so she has started a New Blog called "Pass the Recipe Box". She is hoping that because her computer is a lap top she can just being her computer into the kitchen and look up what ever she wants from here computer instead of having a paper recipe book or box to keep her recipes.

I have added a few starter recipes, my favorite being Capn Crunch Salmon.

If you would like to join and submit recipes please let us know, we plan of having family recipes as the main basis. So Emily, Rebecca, Kim, come join us!

http://passtherecipebox.blogspot.com/

Guess & Get goes online

The Family game of "Guess & Get" went online this week as Dan, Ty and Sharee challenged each other on G-mail chat to the favorite family game. Time stood still as the game went on until 2 am Sharee's time! Todays game ended with Dan having the best game score of 6/15 correct guesses - But Tyler was quick to let us know that he will topple that score. Sharee ended the last game with a congratulatory "Swedish Fish Willy" for Dan.

New Lost an Office Widgets

For all who are "Lost" and "The Office"fans - at the bottom of our blog page there is a Lost Trivia game that I have added - so let's see who knows their trivia. Have fun!!

All American

Dear Family,
The coaches poll for the 2007 Men's Collegiate Water Polo season was announced yesterday and fortunately I made All-American Second team.
Thank You to all who have been so helpful and encouraging. This is a major accomplishment and goal in my life that is now met and I would like to thank everyone for being so supportive in the pursuit of my goals.
-Tyler
To see the results:

http://collegiatewaterpolo.org/html/0708News/2007MenClubAllA
mericaTeam.htm