Perks

Just a few days ago I got to meet Stephenie Meyer, the author of Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. It was so exciting to meet her because I love the books so much and there has been so much publicity about her because of Twilight coming out in the movie theaters. Her webpage stepheniemeyer.com is very interesting and it feels like she could be my next door neighbor. She seems to be just a regular gal even though she is famous world wide now. The girls at work got me started reading the books. I borrowed the first 3 from Kimmy and read them all pretty quickly. I couldn't wait for the 4th book because I just had to find out what happened. So when Breaking Dawn came out I bought it and read it in a few days. It turned out to be my favorite! So since everyone at work was reading the books, even the guys, it caused quite a stir when she showed up with her family at the airport to fly to Seattle on Alaska for Thanksgiving. Several of them got autographs and got to chat with her a little. I wasn't there that day but I was scheduled to meet her flight when she came home. I made sure to bring my book to work and boy was I nervous. I don't know why except she's the the biggest author out there right now. She stepped off the plane and I quietly said "Stephenie, will you sign my book?" She smiled and said "sure" so we walked up the jetway and I asked her how her Thanksgiving was to which she replied that it was very relaxing. I asked if she went up there to see family and suprisingly she said she doesn't have any family up in Seattle. I told her I was thrilled to be able to meet her and by then we were at the top of the jetway and I thanked her and said good-bye. It was very short but it was very cool! 30 seconds with the most famous person on the planet...well in my little world anyway. That is just one of the perks of working for an airline....I will include my treasure....

4x4 tag

Katie sort of tagged me so I will do a 4x4 tag just for fun.
A. tv shows I watch
1. Dancing with the stars
2. American Idol
3. So you think you can dance
4. House
B. Things I look forward to
1. Ken being done with school
2. having my own house again
3. spending Thanksgiving with Kens sisters in Snowflake
4. getting braces to fix these awful teeth ( maybe not the getting so much as the result of getting)
C. Things I love
1. traveling
2. pedicures
3. being happy
4. trampolines
D. Things I can't stand
1. confrontation
2. people who hurt others
3. being shy
4. not being good at guitar hero
4.5 badd speling


well I don't really know how tagging works but since theres only 4 people who read this blog you are all tagged.
So yeah, the braces thing, I found out today that I will be getting braces Dec. 2nd. I have an open bite which means only my back 2 teeth on both sides touch when I bite down. Its putting strain on those teeth and they are showing signs of wear and tear. They arent meant to take all the chewing and grinding and pounding...So now at 32 years of age it's time for me to get braces. They say I 'll have to wear a retainer for the rest of my life ...Jeannie and Dave where are your retainers?

Real Excitement!

I know, I know its been almost 3 years since I wrote something. I usually feel like the stuff that happens in my life just isn't that exciting. But today a happy thing happened. I have a friend at work who is constantly asking me questions about the church. He wants a CTR ring and he spent 15 mins looking at all 150 temples on the church website. He is very curious and I would say 'golden'. Not 2 nights ago I said to Ken if he could just have one discussion with a set of really great missionaries he would be converted. Now I'm not saying he is going to get wet any time soon but today started off like many previous days with my friend asking question after question. I finally asked him, "would you like to talk to the mormon missionaries" I told him they are the same age as him and they could answer all his questions and it would be so cool. He said yes!. " I think I will take you up on that..." he said. I also asked him if he would like to go to the visitor center at the temple. And again he said "yes." I'm thrilled to pieces. That my friends, is exciting!

gifts

The other day I was sitting on the porch swing with Ashton and Dakota waiting for Ken to come home from school. There was a little breeze and it just felt so nice outside. We were just talking about simple things like the flowers and the grass and the airplanes flying overhead. Then out of the blue Dakota came to me and took my face in his hands, (you know how they do) and said "I give you the gift of a merry-go-round!" I thought how sweet is that. He wants me to have fun. But he didn't stop there. He then gave me the gift of a head to put on my shoulders. Wow, this kid is deep. He wants me to think. Once again he was passing out the gifts, he gave me the gift of a key. You know- to open doors and locks with. That could come in very handy from time to time. And lastly, he gave me the gift of a shirt. Also very handy from time to time. Such a sweet memory of my little Dakota. You just can't make this stuff up!

abortion

I got the October Ensign today and started flipping through it. I was drawn to an article regarding abortion written by Elder Russell M. Nelson. I was completely blown away by a statistic that they quoted. "Worldwide reports indicate that more than 40 million abortions are performed per year." That is more than were killed in WWI and WWII combined....every year. Ok so thats a lot to interpret. Listen to this. In the United States there are between 3 and 4 million live births per year. In the same year there are about 1 million abortions. This is what I find so shocking. 1 in every 3-4 pregnancies end in abortion....What part of "thou shalt not kill nor do anything like unto it" do we not understand?
Before I had children, I thought that in certain instances abortion would be ok, like rape or incest. Now that I've had children I know that as soon as that child is conceived, no matter how it is conceived, it is a child. It begins the process of building a brain and a heart. According to Elder Nelson who is also a Medical Doctor, that child has a beating heart and a functioning circulatory system within 30 days of conception.
I don't agree with abortion on demand. If you make a choice to create a life, then you are also choosing the blessing or consequence that comes with that choice. We don't have the right to take the choice away from the unborn child. They are defenseless. I am so sad that not more women in this country value the life of thier unborn children.
Along the same lines, A gay couple flew on my airline the other day with newborn twins. They had a little girl and a little boy. They may be really nice guys and have the ability to provide those babies with all the material things they need in this life, but they cannot give those children the mother they need. If you are gonna choose to live a gay lifestyle then you choose to give up the benefits of a marriage between a man and a woman, the only way in which children come into this world. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Thats all I'm gonna say about that.

Ken's horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day

I've been helping Ken work on his architecture class models. He has to build tiny little buildings with thin little bass wood sticks and planks, and glue. The other night we stayed up most the night working on the project. This model shows how a particular modular home is built. It uses sections of the house which are prefab'd (built off-site and trucked to the building site) which are then put toghether. Anyway it was looking really good. He stained some of the planks and scored lines in them to make it look like wood siding and he really puts a lot of effort into his work. He was actually ahead of schedule which was nice for a change. Notice all the past pretenses I've been using....It was a very nice model....

Ken called me from school feeling very low. The teacher had suggested that he add a lot more detail to his model. He also was beginning to feel frustrated using the Auto-Cad program which can be very complicated. He was going on very little sleep and probably didn't have much to eat for dinner. He actually said he felt like quitting....Just before the cell phone battery died he told me he was just going to pack up his stuff and come home to try to get a decent night sleep.

1 hour later:

Ken walks in looking even more dejected than he had sounded on the phone....His first words were "It got worse".....how in the world could his day get worse? He went on to tell me how he had just gotten on his bike to ride to the lot where he parks. His paper bag holding all his models hanging from the handle bars...some guy in a big hurry comes flying down the sidewalk right toward Ken so Ken swerves and is launched head over handlebars and landed right on top of his bag of models....crushing them. CRUSHING THEM! All his hard work gone. I'm pretty sure he spent a few tears on the drive home. My poor sweet husband. It's pretty hard to see my husband feeling so low...He is usually my rock.

We got to work right away salvaging anything we could and stayed up most of that night rebuilding. Thankfully the process was quicker the 2nd time around and it really is fun spending quality time with Ken. I love him to "pieces."

I'm a BIG kid now, Mommy!

You know how when you are potty training your kids and you tell them "you are gonna be so big now because you get to wear big boy underwear" They are so proud to be able to do some big boy things. Well the other day Dakota found a knife on the table and wanted to cut a slice of cheese all by himself, you know because he Is a Big boy afterall....Well his eyes started to tear up when I told him that little kids don't cut with knives..just mommies and daddies do. Then with all the sincerity and pleading that a little 3 year old can muster he said " Well Mommy I am a Big Boy...he then proceded to lift his shirt and drop his shorts....See? he said. And there I had my proof...He was in fact wearing his big boy underwear. You really can't argue with a 3 year olds logic :^)

blogger newborn

I am a blogger newborn trying to figure all this blog stuff out. I've seen some great blogs and I have no idea how to do it so I'm just diving right in. I want to know how to get those great wallpaper or background graphics. But the first thing I want to do is figure out how to put a playlist on my blog. Look at me , I'm gettin all techno-savvy...