THAT'S A WRAP (Thanksgiving '08)

ARG!! Where is my mind! It is only appropriate that I start out the Thanksgiving post with news on who our new bishop is - Garth Johnson. Our hula teacher's husband. He was Ben's scout master and we are THRILLED and thankful. He has a great relationship with our kids. Paul Alder is first counselor and Levi Liljenquist is 2nd counselor (which means we need a new Elder's Quorum President now).

We went to Richland for Thanksgiving.

Before we left for Richland we went to Ben's cardiologist appointment. We stopped in to drop off his monitor. We thought it would be in and out, so we checked the kids out of school early and went to Sacred Heart Children's Hospital. We waited for AN HOUR AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES to see the Doctor. After two hours, we were out of there! Yay! We picked up Larry and headed out of town.

Sari and Daniel at the Doctor office, Rachel and Ben's heads behind them.

Joseph and Matthew at the lego table. This was a good doctors office for kids - lots of fun stuff, but everyone was ready to go after two hours.

Back to our trip - it was a great drive down. I slept the entire way. Seemed like 20 minutes, instead of 2 1/2 hours.

Because we left on Wednesday, once we got into town, we turned around and headed back to Kennewick to Double Dragon. This time I took a picture of the sign. More lemon chicken. I love the stuff. I just do.

Thanksgiving morning, the kids played outside while the grown ups finished up dinner. Rather, while we tried to look busy while Mom Sant made dinner delicious.

Matthew LOVES the Sant grandparents new backyard adventure!

Seriously, this is a boy who NEEDS a dog. Needs. One. I think he nearly pet Nephi (Jean's dog) bald.

Taking pictures of Sari and Katie is like trying to take a picture of lightening when it strikes. It's pretty much impossible to get them to look in the same direction at the same time with smiles.

I think I got one out of about fifteen tries. Thank goodness for digital! I digress for a moment to show two more of about twenty that show another reason to be thankful for digital. When did the kids get the camera?

Matthew eating breakfast?

Got milk? Like I said, thankful for digital.

The girls decorated the table with leaves the the Balero girls and Grandma Sant picked up on a walk. It was very pretty.

Christa putting the rolls on the table. Christa is younger than Sari by 2 weeks. Sari loves to spend time with her Balero cousins. We love that the girls are good friends.

The boys, ahem, men set up the tables in the livingroom.

Larry giving the guns a kiss.

Don't you LOVE the pictures around the table when everyone is starving and the camera just keeps clicking? Me too. Here are some:

Rachel and Camry.

It's blurry but I love this picture of Linda and Dono.

Like father, like daughter. Steve and Sarah smile the same way. I spent every photo op saying, "You have such nice smiles! Smile with your teeth!"

Joseph had enough energy to power Southern California. No, really, he did. From the back - Steven, Mom, Dad, Larry, Matthew, and Joseph - the kilowatt bunny.

Even Nephi was recruited to take part of the celebrations. Here he is as a pilgrim. That's Joseph hand skimming over his back. Joseph could not be by Nephi and NOT be petting him.

After dinner collapse:

Stufficated Sari.

Christa was smart - she just laid down where she was.

Steven, Zina, and Zane. I love Zina's shirt.

Steve's youngest, Zoe. I could eat her with a spoon. I always thought that I would have babies with hair like that. I DESERVED babies with hair like that. If I was going to give birth to that Larry-inherited huge head, they should have gotten his curls, too. Bummer.

My mom-in-law has this FABULOUS dishware. She bought it back in the 50's. I love the shape and design. Because my camera is broken I have to document it in two pictures. The one above shows the whole shape and design of the flowers.

This photo shows the actual colors. Aren't they great?! The Sant kids didn't like the shape of the plates so this dishware has survived more than half a century.

After the big feast, we spent the next three days:

Sleeping. Joseph collapsed where he was standing.

More sleeping. Matthew collapsed where he was sitting.

Playing games. Ben, Rachel, Steven, and the vintage LIFE game. We also played Texas Hold 'Em, Five Card Stud, and Tripoly. I will not be quitting my day job anytime soon to start "spectating" - sounds so much nicer than gambling, doesn't it?

Playing more games. Joseph and Grandma playing Uno.

Daniel playing dominoes.

And more games. I love the sound of the mixing dominoes. I just wanted to say that I won two of our dominoes games which is twice as many as I've ever won in my life prior to this night.

Did I mention we played games? We also played Phase 10 and Golf. We played A LOT of Speed Scrabble. We all got pretty good at it, too. Our points started totally in the 50's to 70's, a far cry from the 20's we started out scoring. A shout-out to Rabbi Snookie and his wife for teaching us this game while we were in Utah.

Don't let this apathetic expression fool you. Ben is a game-playin' fool. When he was awake (generally from 2 pm to midnight) he was saying, "Let's play a game." "Who wants to play Tripoly?" "Let's play speed scrabble!"

We also ate a lot of food. These are my Grandma Harding's bacon wrapped chestnuts. SO yummy! You don't even want to know how many pieces of pie I had. I am embarrassed about it. I am also craving more and planning on heading to Costco for more this afternoon. That's right. I am.

We also spent a lot of time watching tv and movies. Here's the group down in the basement watching a show. Bet if you don't look close, it is hard to tell which one is Rachel and which one is Camry. On the couches from the left there is Ben, Katie, Daniel, Rachel, and Camry. On the floor from the left is Dono, Christa, Sari, and Sarah.

This Thanksgiving was special because we got to see Sarah. We haven't seen her in about eight years. She stayed with the grandparents instead of the Baleros so we got to spend some time with her. I helped her learn to crochet and she even made her mom a tea cozy.

This is just six of the fourteen granddaughters (and two great-granddaughters) the Sant grandparents have. There must be some good genes going on because there is not an unfortunate looking one in the bunch! Linda's girls are Camry (back, left), Christa (front, left), and Katie (front, right). Steven's is Sarah (back right), our girls are middle.

I found some treasures while I was there! I took pictures of old pictures - check these out:

Jean's knickers look like Larry's legs. I always wanted knickers. And I always wanted to wear a turtleneck with an oxford shirt. I don't think I ever did. I am estimating this picture to be 1980, maybe 1981? The back rowleft to right is Daniel, Randy, Kathryn, Steven, Jennifer, Howard, and Larry. Middle is Mom, Michael, Dad and Jean. Front row is Cheryl and Linda, both sitting.

Even back in the day, Larry wore his shoes on the beach. He still sits the same way, too. Jean and Steven are more in the spirit of the occasion.

If anyone wonders why my boys are always in dress up, you can see that they come by it honestly.

HOLY COW! I think Larry looks SO MUCH like Matthew in this picture. Notice the dress-up.

This is Howard, Larry's oldest brother and Larry. I think Larry looks like his niece, Zoe here. Notice the dress up.

Who can guess which one of my readers is standing next to Jean and Michael?

FRIENDLY VANDALISM

IF we were to be vandals, we would do this to our Ute-fan friend's yard:

And we would expect this in return:

And we would have gotten this:

IF you were to do this, these are the supplies you need:

Note - it is nice to use Professional Marking Paint, designed just for grass! How very thoughtful of someone to think of that.

Be sure to discard your empties and used in a public garbage can.

Again, all hypothetical.

EIGHTEEN YEARS - A PHOTO ESSAY

We met on September 5, 1990 at "Meet The Bishop Night" at BYU. We both had gotten home from our missions the previous March. I had a shirt like his, from Brasil, but he didn't believe me. I really did have one. Sandra Mara, a foreign exchange student that my family hosted had sent me one earlier.

But I am getting ahead of myself. First, when I came home from my mission I was planning on rooming with my old mission companions, Elizabeth and Nina. Well, Elizabeth up and got married on us and that left Nina and I. No problem, we were going to live in the house Nina had been living in for the past year. I drove down to BYU one afternoon to sign the papers for us and when I pulled up to the house there was a vacant lot.

Vacant lot.

An old man was walking down the street, so I asked him where the house went. He said it had been torn down to make apartments. ARG!!! I called Nina in Chicago, who must have nearly had a caniption and drove around until I found a place for us to live. That put us in the same ward as the Casa Dea apartments, which is where Larry lived and how I managed to meet him at meet the bishop night, which I didn't even want to go to, but I was scared to dog (not show up) Nina.

Nina taught with Larry's roommate at the MTC. She hated Darren because he called all his elderlings "dude" and that was inappropriate. But I thought Larry was cute and since Nina and I made dinner for our brothers every Sunday anyway, I thought it would be no big deal to include Larry ... and his roommate that Nina knew when Darren invited himself and Larry over for dinner the next week.

So, the day of the dinner comes, rather, the night before, and Nina got home late from her date - she was going to make her world famous spaghetti sauce - and she told me that she had been thinking about it all day and no way was she cooking for Darren. If I liked Larry I'd have to figure out something else, her disdain for Darren was so great.

So, I dogged Larry on our first date. He came over later for something else and we went to that one canyon that Robert Redford owns (Sundance).

I thought he was SOOOO cute. I love his curly hair. Good thing I took pictures. He hates it and keeps it SHORT now. After that one drive, we were pretty much inseparable. I was smitten.

On October 15 my boss came back to the drive up window where I was working - at 3 p.m. (look at the clock behind us), which was the busiest time of the day, back in the day, because that was the time we closed business for the day. Everything was processed and shut down and started over. Austin came back and I was busy and he said, "Tifani, you have an angry customer, you've got to come deal with him." I loved Austin like a dad and said, "Austin, that's why they pay you the big bucks is to deal with the people I am not nice to." (I wasn't the nicest teller, but I was very fast and very good, it is just that people annoy me - sign the back of your stinkin' check and no, your friend can not vouch that you are who you say you are, I need picture id, moron. This is your balance, but really, it's not your balance. Why? Did you ever take math? Oops, I digress. But I will say, I do have an unnatural ability to find the crankiest tellers everywhere I go. Karma, baby.)

When Austin finally dragged me out front, there was Larry in a tux, with a dozen red roses and he got down on one knee and he asked me to marry him. The whole bank went silent, the lines were to the door and everyone stopped to see what I would say. I said, "Yes" and Gaynell (I think that was her name) was a customer service person and she called out, "She said yes!" and the whole bank cheered. Trevor, Larry's roommate and friend from Richland, was taking pictures. Remember, this was back in the day before digital and before zoom:

AHHHH ... it was so sweet!

And so, after a variety of wedding dates, that for one reason or another didn't work out, we settled on November 21, 1990. Are you keeping track? I'll do the math for you - that's about a 5 week engagement after a 5 week dating run. Our poor parents.

But they braved it and got us a wedding put together. We were married in the Salt Lake Temple.

THE tree. I hear it is gone now. Now I love this picture even more.

So young, so happy, so naive... still happy though!

We wanted dark dark green velvet and small amounts of pink. Couldn't find the velvet, went with pink silky tafetta after my mom bought all the fabric and then told me that's what we were using. Not my choice, but now I understand what little time I gave her, especially because my sister did nearly the same thing, at the same time. My aunt Clea made my flowers. They were so beautiful. Steve (Larry's brother) begrudgingly wore the pink tie and cummerbund to show that he was the best man. Thanks, Steve. You don't read the blog, but I'll say it for the masses, I know you suffered for it.

And my grandma made the cake. I loved it. Until she and my mom added the reindeer. But I just wanted to get married and I let her do what she wanted. They did make great Christmas decorations, until my kids broke them all, but we'll get to them (the kids) later.

This has nothing to do with my wedding, it is just a funny wedding picture of my brother, Jason.

Our Richland reception. Then back down to our Provo apartment that my Rick's roommate and friend from high school had found for us.

It was a nasty basement apartment without counter tops and no shower - just a tub. Try washing waist long hair in a tub. Then try doing it with morning sickness and vertigo. When a sublet opened up in Wymount, we jumped on it. Move #2: (the first one from our single's apartments) in the first 11 years of our marriage we moved 15 times. This picture also shows our Chevy Citation. Larry had to push it every morning to jump start it. Eventually 1st gear went out so he had to push it faster. Then, it started leaking radiator fluid in the passenger foot well. Then the heater went out (we drove with a candle lit in the car, and blankets - it really does warm you up!) Eventually, we realized this was no car to drive a newborn around in and we got a Ford Escort (such a luxury!)

1991 - Every married couple we knew had infertility problems. They said, "Start trying a year before you want kids!" Well, we knew that we wanted to start in a year, so we took their advice. I mean, I was already "old" at 23. Turns out we had that OTHER fertility problem. The one where you can't seem to stop getting pregnant.

1991 - Tonia, another one of mission companions took this picture of Larry and I up Provo Canyon when I was pregnant with Rachel.

1991 - Two months before our 1 year anniversary we had Rachel. Can you believe they sent her home with us? We didn't know what we were doing! We didn't even know to lay the baby down to get her dressed. Poor Rachel. My apologies, baby.

1991 - Our second Christmas, by this time in Villa Maria apartments - thanks to Elizabeth and Jason! We moved in from a hotel three days before I had Rachel.

1992 - We went to Alturas Lake that summer. Pregnant again. This time with Ben. I thank him for the easy pregnancy and delivery. Bless you forever.

1992 - Here we are seeing Larry's sister Jean off on her mission (she met HULK HOGAN in Germany!). WHY were those dresses so popular? Rachel and I had matching ones. Ugh. Notice that I still carried around my Franklin Planner at that point in my life. Soooo naive.

1992 - By now we lived in Wymount building number 11. About seven months pregnant with Ben. How I LOVED those pregnant jumpers!

1993 - Two and a half years into our marriage and we already had two kids. I'll do more math for you - in 30 months of marriage I had been pregnant 18 of those and nursing 11. Poor Larry.

1993 - It was hard, but we were so happy! We went to Bridal Falls almost every weekend. Here we were picnicking with the Sant parents and Larry's siblings families after climbing Timpanogos.

1994 - We even flew to Portland for Linda and Dono's wedding. That dress was one of my favorites! LOVED it.

1995 - This picture says were at Camp Tracy. I don't know where that is or why we were there, but look, we are having more fun! About this time, we moved to a 3 bedroom in Wymount, then into my parent's basement, then into an apartment, then into a camp trailer, and finally into our tiny Santaquin house that we helped build.

1996 - A side effect of building a house is getting pregnant. It happened to a lot of people I know. It happened to us. I finally finished college 6 months pregnant with Sari. Thanks for putting me through college, Larry! And my mom and dad - they even "gave" me for Christmas the math class I needed to graduate - that would be Math 99. Fifth time's a charm!

1996 - We had these family pictures scheduled and I was sure Sari would be born early, because Ben was three weeks early. She was 11 days late. I was CUCKOO!

1998 - Now we have no family pictures until Daniel had joined us too (too busy with Larry working full time, going to school part time and being Elder's Quorum president). I'll do the math for you - when Daniel was born we had been married seven years or 84 months. I had been pregnant for 36 months - or three years and nursing for 33 months - and Daniel was just getting started. Larry is a Saint. I am not a good pregnant person, despite my ability to get that way easily. Here we are seeing Michael off on his mission.

1999 - We went to Lake Powell a few times, even just carted along Daniel's oxygen. The tank had it's own life jacket. My mom and dad were totally not intimidated by that and took us.

2000 - Eventually we moved from Santaquin, the little town we loved, back to Wymount. Once there we found out they were remodeling. We had to move across the quad, then to my parent's house, then back to our newly finished apartment - all in one year's time. It was hard to go back to Wymount, but we really needed Larry to go to school full time, instead of part-time and living in Santaquin was just too hard to get the school goal done.

2000 - At our 10 year anniversary Larry and I went to the Anniversary Inn. Then we took this picture. Notice that I am wearing socks with sandals. Looks like my subconscious was really prepared to come to Washington.

Another 2000 picture - this time of us at Cannon Beach.

I couldn't take Wymount with five kids and we wanted another one, so we moved to the little blue house south of Kiwanis Park. Hated the ward. Loved the elementary school. Learned that we don't want to buy an old house.

Here's some Math - by the time Larry had graduated with his Masters - we had been married 10 1/2 years, had 5 kids, 45 months of pregnancy, and 60 months of nursing. That is FIVE years with a lactating wife and 3 3/4 years with a progesterone poisoned wife. That Larry, he's a good man.

2001 - I will put a picture of Larry's graduation here, where is it????

2001 - A rare shot of just the two of us - now in Spokane and married for 11 years. Happy are we! (My eyes are wonky I know. I don't know why, they just do that.)

2002 - This was the day that Kathryn, Larry's sister was kind enough to do the math for the first time which made me realize what we had been doing all these years. I've done the math for you as we've gone a long. Here's the update - about 11 1/2 years of marriage (~140 months) - 45 months of pregnancy and 72 months of lactation. I don't mean to brag, but I excelled at lactation. I was a star! Thanks to Kathryn, I had a headache the rest of the night, and I was exhausted. Math does that to you.

2003 - One year later - you guessed it! Pregnant! (152 months of marriage - 47 months of gestation - two more to go! - and 78 months of lactation)

Still pregnant with Matthew but I love this picture because it has my grandparents in it. Also, this was one of my favorite pregnant shirts. It's not because it was flattering ... I just loved grapes.

2004 - Whew! Here we all are at Yellowstone!

2005 - The Wayne Sant family reunion, us in our backyard. Totals - 15 years of marriage - 4 1/2 years of pregnancy, 7 1/2 years of lactation. Wow. No wonder I need a full body lift!

2006 - Oregon Coast - this was actually near Gold Falls (or was it Silver?) in any case, it was so beautiful!

2007 - Rachel's gonna hate this picture - but here we are nearing 17 years.

2008 - Other than one night at the Anniversary Inn and an over night to Manti in 1995, this trip to Lake Tahoe was the only time we've been without our kids. I think I could get used to it! But they are growing up so fast anyway, it won't be long before most of our pictures have just Larry and I, instead of finding just three or four during 18 years.

We've had good times and we've had bad times. We've had a dollar in our pocket and not a dime to our name. We've had children and wondered about why we weren't having children, when it used to be so easy. We have been healthy and sick. We've agreed and we've disagreed. There have been times I have been murderously mad and times Larry was furious. (Okay, me a lot more than him :).) There have also been times of perfect peace and complete comfort. And all the spaces in between. But overall, and I guess this is what really matters, overall, the good times have been better than the bad times.

Larry is commitment, kindness and charity personified. He is my best friend and closest confidant. I am a better person for marrying him.

OMGosh!

Rachel would give her right arm for this:

She'd have to wear it on her left arm but she wouldn't mind. I know that she is not the only one. Ben might, too. You know you want one.

You can check it out here. Even I have to agree it is super cute, but I would want mine to say, "Running FROM vampires".

IDEA CENTRAL

Been doing my Christmas dreaming a little early this year.

Sooooo so so much stuff out there. So so so so much stuff in here. I want something useful, fun, meaningful, special, perfect and cheap.

This link has given me a few fresh ideas. Maybe you'll find something too.

YOUNG WOMAN MEDALLION

Today Rachel was awarded her Young Women medallion. She has had it earned for a few years and just needed to fill out the paperwork. (Long story about how her fire got put out - doesn't matter any more.) Here she is in her *refashioned purple dress, with her necklace.

A closer view of the necklace.

REALLY close up.

But Rachel loves more than the necklace, is that today, in her interview with Bishident (Still our bishop AND stake president) Larson, he gave her this bracelet. He MADE IT for her himself. It is all sterling silver. Isn't that about the sweetest thing you've ever heard?

Rachel absolutely LOVES it. Just another reason to love Bishident Larson and feel bad for the person who has to fill his shoes. SO MANY people have asked - the letters stand for faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, and integrity - the young women values.

Said shoes are still not filled.

Rumored candidates are: Bro. Carlsen, Bro. Pugh, Bro. Jones, and Bro. Johnson (for those few who used to live in the ward or who know who I am talking about).

*This is what the purple dress looked like before - totally Hannah Andersson/Laura Ashley style, mu'umu'u dress. Perfect for the bloated days, but not really fun for anything else. Now it is fitted, shorter and sassy.

IF YOU HAVE A TOOTHACHE

you can try Ora-gel - maximum strength, rinsing and gargling with salt water, a hot pack on the side of your face, acupuncture - try massaging your index fingers just below the nails, 800 ml Advil with 2 Excedrin headache relief at least every 6 hours, and when all that fails try BANG YOUR HEAD REPEATEDLY ON THE TILE FLOOR to cause enough brain damage that you no longer feel pain.

What also works is to catch your pinkie toe on a chair leg so it pulls it off your foot and then, for one brief instant, your tooth no longer hurts, as the world spins from your pinkie toe pain. Caution - the toothache comes back when you involuntarily gasp and the cold air hits your tooth so try not to breath for as long as possible.

TONIGHT WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE

and there were no protesters or danger like in the bigger cities. I felt blessed.

(I also ran into Cynthia Franz who I knew in Hayden Lake and remember her awesome house on the lake - she had a fire pole and a HUGE fridge like in my sister's deli and a phone booth for the kids' phone. Seven kids. Great family! I also sat next to Debbie Plaster, who I also knew on my mission. She served us fish on fast Sunday when Tonia was my companion. I am glad every day that I went on a mission!)

RUN don't walk

You all probably know how I feel about Oprah. But hey, it's free! Snapfish is giving away an 8 1/2 x 11 photo book FREE! You just have to complete it by TOMORROW. Click here to see it for yourself! JUST IN! The deadline was extended until NOVEMBER 22!!! There is still time!

And now a warning - I just spent two hours making a beautiful book and my Mozilla shutdown unexpectedly and lost the whole book. There's two hours I'll never get back.

THANK YOU VETERANS

I am proud to be an American. I am proud of my relatives (I hope I was mostly accurate) and friends (not pictured) who have kept this country free. To them, and the others like them I say, THANK YOU!

My great-grandpa Cook - Army 1917-1918

My grandpa Hathaway - Navy 1945 (my dad was 3)

My grandpa Harding - Army Air Guard 1942 - 1945 - he was shot down over Austria. He and my grandma have the sweetest story, I'll tell you sometime.

My dad - Army National guard 1960 -1972.

My brother, Jason - I'm gonna guess 1991 (?) - current. He's been in the Marines, Army and now the Coast Guard.

Lucky, I am.

It's Canadian, but it's beautiful:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

An oldie, but a goodie:

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you,

Jesus Christ and the American Soldier

One died for your soul;

the other for your freedom.

Lucky, we are.

HOME OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE

I hope that Jason doesn't mind me posting about this.

When my brother changed from flying Apaches for the Army to being in the Coast Guard, I was SO relieved. I thought he would be safer. He has been a cop and a detective for forever and he likes high risk stuff (I think his childhood desensitized him - let's face it - it wasn't easy to have Jon and I as older siblings.) He has had some scary stories, and some funny ones (Jason is hilarious!). But overall, I guess I just felt better thinking that at least people weren't shooting at him. Of course, he can't shoot back anymore, either.

A recent post from his blog has changed my mind. This time he is in danger, not because of some evil dictator but because people are stupid. Or unlucky. And firing bullets at the ocean or fog doesn't change anything. I admire his wife and kids for putting up with this kind of career. I don't know how they do it.

A few Saturdays ago he spent the day trying to save a 6-year-old boy and his uncle. The mom, aunt, uncle and boy were on the beach, and underestimated what a sneaker wave can do, and the mom and son were swept away. The uncle and aunt jumped in to save them. The aunt saved the mom. The Coast Guard found the boy but they never did recover the uncle's body. They started CPR on the boy and he was life flighted to a bigger city, but he died.

There was a photographer there on vacation who took a ton of pictures. You can see them here. Jason is the pilot in front of the guy leaning out the side of the helicopter.

It is pretty sad stuff for this rainy day, but I wanted to post about it because I am proud of my brother. And the others like him who risk their lives to protect and serve us. Props to you and your families. May God bless and protect you.

AN ANGRY MOTH

Tonight we had a VERY long discussion with the kids about being Mormon and being persecuted. (Rachel came home with the news of what happened to the people at the Los Angeles temple.) The little kids overheard so Larry and I were trying to make them not afraid, but also teach that it probably is not going to get any easier to stand up for what you believe in so it's best to decide now what side of the fence you are on.

Joseph said, "I know how it feels when Jesus talks to me and how the Holy Ghost feels because I am still a kid and Heavenly Father loves me." I nodded, anxious to move on. Then Joseph said, "That's how I know that Satan is in control of that angry moth."

Angry moth? Do I let it go? It's late, we've got to get to the topic. No, I can't let it go. I sigh. "What angry moth, Joseph?" "The one outside the temple where Grandpa and Grandma (Sant) were."

OH, angry mob.

Later, I said to the kids, "Tomorrow we will finish the Book of Mormon. What does Moroni tell us to do?" Daniel said, "Not to be afraid." "Good, Daniel. Actually, that was Mormon telling Moroni to not be afraid. What does MORONI tell us to do when we finish reading the Book of Mormon?" Without missing a beat, Joseph called out - "START OVER!"

BOBBY PINS

It took some math to figure out, but ELIZABETH TONGI is the winner! I used 61 bobby pins in Rachel's Tinkerbell do.

Missy you were 2nd by a ... (wait for it) ... hair.

SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT

On this bleak day of Obama victory and the United States going to he11 in a handbasket, I wasn't going to post. More like drape my blog in black. Then I remembered the following and I thought "out of the mouths of babes" might be a little cheering.

The other day Joseph was in my hair (literally) after school. Driving me crazy! Exasperated I said, "You have a lot of other toys!" (pulling my hair out of his hands) "Go play with them!" He said, "Mom, I am starting to become a man and now that I am in first grade toys just aren't fun anymore."

On Sunday, during Testimony Meeting Joseph leaned over to Larry and I, and said, "I feel like I want to bear my testimony." Larry said, "You have to go up there alone and no laughing. If you need to practice we can practice at home and then you can go up next time." Joseph cuddled up with me and said, "I am thinking about what I can say." A few more minutes passed then he walked up to the stand and said, "I want to bury my testimony. I know the church is true. I know the scriptures are true. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet. I know my family loves me. I know I love them. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." I smiled the rest of the day.

Also, last night Ben could not find his retainer (the one with a front tooth on it). We looked everywhere. He went to mutual. I cleaned the kitchen. No retainer. This morning he went to Seminary then came home and emptied the garbage and recycle bins. I tore apart the couches. We cleaned everything! Joseph said, "Let's say a prayer." We did and a little while later I found it between two glass bowls in the kitchen cupboard. I have no idea how it got there, but we said a prayer of thanks too. I just didn't have $700 to pull out of ... thin air.

APOCALYPSE

Great. Obama is president. Gregoire is our governor.
What next? BYU will probably lose to the Utes in a few weeks and it will be because the end of the world has started.

DISPELLING THE MYTH

Staci, my friend from way back, when Rachel was a baby, asked here if there is anything I don't do? I feel this needs to be addressed. First of all, that is a great question for Staci to answer! But that aside, here are just a FEW things I don't do:

Play the piano or sing or dance (isn't that a lovely piano?! Someday I will get it refinished ...)

Scrapbook (or even clean off the crap that has accumulated on the basket)

Deal with paperwork very well. I am failing at several different systems.

Balance the checkbook. Since the big external hard drive crash of February 2008 where I LOST seven years of financial information, forever unretrievable, I have lost all desire to know about my money. It's a mess. I don't recommend it.

Keep up on the coat closet. This place literally reproduces itself every 4 hours or so. It is a stinking fruit fly!

Decorate. Above is the shelf above my front door. It is structurally unsound because of the dust. (Another thing I don't do as often as needed!) Below is some of the stuff I bought IN AUGUST to decorate that area up a bit. I still haven't touched it. I just don't know what to do and definitely not how to do it. Ugh.

Keep caught up on the laundry. More fruit flies reproducing here.

Make nutritious meals for my family. We rank real low on how many veggies we eat.

Exercise like I should. (Check out my hot sista here.)

Iron. Unless I absolutely have to. And when I do, I put on a dress and apron.

I better stop now. Once I got started ... well, I sure thought of a lot more!

With all the myths debunked I hope you will still be my friend.

RACHEL FINDS HER INNER JANE

I know most people who post about the funny things their kids say refer to their toddler or child. Rachel, at 17, is an endless stream of hilariousness. Phrases such as, "Alaska is a state?!" frequently fly out of her pretty little mouth.



Watch this video of Taylor Swift's latest song, "Love Story" (sorry for the ad at the beginning this was the only video that had an embed code) and when it hits EXACTLY 3:12 imagine Rachel exclaiming, "Look! He is rescuing her! ... (with a sigh) and in THAT shirt!" We all about fell on the floor laughing. My baby girl is a closet Jane Austen fan! (Sari is so far out of that closet - she about has the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice memorized.)

P.S. For all of you who are just DYING to know, the Stake President/Bishop stood up in Sacrament Meeting, a hushed, expectant silence fell over the room. He said something to the effect of: no one wants to know who the new bishop will be more than him but what he has learned is that you can't rush inspiration. He has no idea who it will be. Brother Carlsen bore his testimony and three woman - Jan, Julie, and I think Phyllis all thought he would be the next bishop, or he would make a good one. Another lady in the ward claims to have seen Alan Jones and the bishop together at the Stake Center, in suits, on Saturday. Rumors! Inuendo! Spying! How exciting!

SADIE HAWKINS

Tonight Rachel and Jacob went to Sadie Hawkins. The theme was dress up or something like that. After a lot of discussion of different ideas, Rachel and Jake decided on Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Here is Rachel with her completely fake smile. It's a Hathaway thing. It's genetic.

I like this picture because Rachel is really smiling, from what you can see of her face. Also, her wings look pretty reflected in the window. (we really gotta do something about that spot in the carpet!)

After the two other couples arrived they headed outside for pictures. I think on this cold night, Jake is going to see the perks of tights! (haha) I think they look absolutely fabulous!

Here is their group:

Jordan Hardy and Ben Pugh, Jake Grover and Rachel, Roman and Alyssa Jamison. They are going to Jordan's house for dinner, then to LaserQuest for a few rounds of that, to the dance for pictures and maybe some dancing, then to Alyssa's house for dessert and games. Good thing they left at 5:30! That's a lot to fit in before their midnight curfews!

In my HUMBLE opinion, Rachel and Jacob look the best!

*CONTEST!* In your comments leave your best guess for this question. The one who is closest will win a little something from me! Here is the question:

How many bobby pins did it take to make Rachel's hair into a Tinkerbell bun?

Check out more costumes that I sewed this week in the post just before this one!