Many hidden blogging worlds

Yesterday I came across an entire blogging community devoted to punctuation blunders and such. I was laughing so hard at some of this stuff that I had to share:

Found this on PAN, from afroswede’s flickrstream


Curious Signs posted this
and check out this other goodie here.

Quotation marks posted this one
what exactly does Government inspected mean?

Goal accomplished!

Just a disclaimer, this is going to be one of those posts where I appear really dramatic. And don't worry, because in all reality, I really am that way, as anyone close to me can probably attest.

To read one book each quarter. Check for the first quarter 2008. And then some. I have been reading the autobiography of Barack Obama since October of last year! So I obviously had a head start on the book that I read this quarter. I finally finished it (and I was really proud of myself) and then what happens?

~oh, one more disclaimer, what follows should in no way be construed as taking away any of the goodness that was Mr. Obama's book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it as an inside view into this presidential candidate, especially since it was written long before he announced his intention to run for president. Very insightful on race relations and an overall good read.~

Ok where was I?

I was at a work socialization (the name for when we get together with families in the program and do fun activities) this one was at the Little Gym in SLC, when my co-worker Sarah says to my other co-worker Sally, "are you reading that book again?". That's when I noticed the book she was holding and chimed in "oh, I've heard of that series..." Really I had just read on more than one blog what good books they were, and had no idea what they were about. Instantly she practically threw the book in my hands and said "here, take it, read it, if you borrow it than I won't be able read it!" She acted like the book had some sort of power over her. Little did I know the spellbinding powers this book actually possessed. I took the book home with me and ignored it for the rest of the day. I had already put a couple of books on hold at the library that were next on my list, but that was all changed with this little twist of fate.

The next day, Sunday, I only had about 1 1/2 hours to read, since it was my dad's birthday party and we made Gumbo for it, plus church responsibilities, etc. Not a big deal, it seemed easy enough to put down. And a storyline that I would never have pictures myself reading about...vampires? please.

But the next day was a different story. Can I tell you how much I had on my to do list this week? We had our old renters move out and new renters move in within a 2 day period and I had sooo much to do for that plus our carpets upstairs and down were getting cleaned, plus I was helping watch my friends kids for both Monday and Tuesday, missionary discussions, taxes woes, etc etc etc!!! But no, oh no...all that was put on hold (except the apt, which there was no getting out of), while I frantically read every second that I could. "Just 15 minutes" I would say and then painfully close it 1 hour later...it was aweful! Aweful in a wonderful sort of way.

I kept getting mad at the book and the author for making it so captivating and at myself for allowing myself to get so spellbound over it. I kept trying to break free from it's chains but then I would just get sucked in again...so finally last night I decided that was it! The sooner I just gave in and finished the darned thing, the sooner I could be free to live my life again...that is until I borrow the next one....

Anyhow, I fell asleep last night but I finished the last few pages this morning.

So a warning...it is seductive and captivating...and wonderfuly dangerous to read this book!

hmm...it took me 4 long months to read one [good] book, but yet I could turn around and read this one in 3 days! I guess I'm a sucker for fiction (no pun intended)

Either way, I am glad to be able to mark one thing off my list for now, and to have my life back for a little while.

p.s. on another note, I mentioned the loss of our renters this week. Well, along with them, we are mourning the loss of our DVR...oh my how I will miss it...so I guess now that I am down to like 5 channels I will have a lot more time for reading?

Papi's Birthday

My dad turned 62 last week--what a handsome guy right?

I went over to their home on the night of his birthday, it was so great, my mom knew I was coming but I called right before I got there and acted like I didn't have any plans of the sort, I told him I was grocery shopping and then while we were still on the phone we showed up on the doorstep! The kids made him a cute card and we sang happy birthday with the cookies that I made him.

Then on Sunday we had a family celebration and it had a bicycle theme because, since my mom gave him a new bike, the rest of us gave him bike-related items. My sister took a really funny picture of him wearing the helmet I gave him, but I will have to wait until I get those from her to post them.

Sledding Day

We went sledding on President's Day. Wendy and her mom knew about the awesomest hill up Emmigration Canyon. It was so cool, you sledded down this mountain for forever and then someone picked you up at the bottom and took you back up! Which totally takes the soaking wet, arduous climb back up the hill out of the equation! It was so fun, the first time we went down, Jonas just pushed (or pulled) Jasmine down slowly. I went by myself and learned how to control and stop my sled pretty good.

Until we got to this monstrous hill--I couldn't even see the bottom of it! Just then Wendy's daughter Jaya decided that she wanted to go with me too, so now I had her life to worry about too. But we made it! Here is a picture of one of the girls, totally biffing it:

And Jonas after totally biffing it: (this was his reinactment)

The scenery was absolutely gorgeous and it did us so much good to be out in the fresh air getting some exercise!

Valentine's Day 2008

This is the recap of our Valentine's Day celebrations this year~

I snowed really bad the night before and so I took half of the day off (since I normally work all day on Thursdays) so that was nice!

The kids woke up to sweet little surprises in their Valentine's pillows:

We had a yummy spagetti dinner...

And the kids and I made strawberry cupcakes with a jam filled center (except it all went to the bottom)

And then later, Jonas suprised me by getting off of work early and bringing home a babysitter for the kids. He told me to dress in work out clothes and we went to the gym! We played raquetball and basketball and then we soaked in the jacuzzi for a while. I have to admit I was sceptical at first but I definately got into it and had fun! Then he got me my fav dessert Tracy's Peanut Butter Cup from Leatherby's and gave me this:

It is so tall it touched the light! Very pretty and the chocolates were to die for.

My 100th Post and Happy Birthday!

Yeah! I can't believe this is my 100th post. And I was thinking, this is pretty close to my blogs one year birthday too, because it was about this time last year that I started on this little project. So I went back and looked at the date and my first post was on February 10th 2007! It was so funny because I was like "wait a minute, that is today!". Yes, I didn't know what day it was. So this post represents my 100th post and my blog's 1 year old birthday.

Happy Birthday to My HaPpy PlaCe!

It took a year but suddenly there are more people in my life starting to blog too! Just this week 3 of my friends said they have started one, that is the best birthday present my blog could ask for. It had been such a fun way to keep in touch with people I don't see very often and people that I do see often. I love finding out what other people are up to in the everyday of their lives.

And I love reading people's comments! (hint, hint)

Blogging is fun!

Btw, I found the coolest way to make personlized candy hearts in honor of Valentine's Day right around the corner!

It's fun so try it out:

http://www.acme.com/heartmaker/

Random Good Things

The other night Shayden made dinner for me and Jasmine and put a little sign on the table, in case you can't see it, it says "Happy Valintiens day". It was so cute he named his creation "Gusto!" (it has to have that emphasis at the end) and it was salad smothered in ranch. Not bad. So I got my Valentine's gift early this year.

Jasmine went to her first birthday party that only she was invited to. Well there was the incident last year where she was invited to one, but we had to go home after her 45 min fit over not being able to wear their Snow White dress up clothes. You might remember this...

Benjamin turned 3 and she was so excited, she carried the invitation with her for one week strait. It was a very cute Diego party and she had a great time.

She said the pinata was her favorite part.

Last year I also took the kids to this cute little Valentine's Day party and I loved the picture of them all dressed up so I decided to make it a tradition and took the kids again. It is fun to see them one year older. But this year we took Flat Camryn.

2007

2008
(this one is a picture of a picture, sorry, I don't know how to use my scanner)

You see Jonas has these friends in Texas who have a first grader and she mailed us her version of Flat Stanley (from the book) so that we could take it on some adventures...

Jasmine got beads!

...thanks to Jess...
She did so great considering it took about 4 hours to do...

By the end she had had it, she wouldn't even let her dad look at them when we got home!

In the car she kept saying "I don't want pretty hair anymore"!

But now all she can do is flip her head around to hear the snap snap and say "I love my hair mom!" It's too cute.

The Review is over!

Early Head Start--my "other" job had a big audit by the Federal Government last week. It happens about every three years. It was a

humongous

deal! We all spend countless hours trying to clean up our client files to make sure they were all squeaky clean-it was kind of nerve racking because no one wanted to be the one that made us incompliant right? The reviewers flew in from all over the country right in the middle of one of the crazy snow storms we had last week and they were supposed to go on home visits with us but since I only work on Thursdays I was saved!~ But I still got to celebrate at Mimi's Cafe for dinner~check out my monstrous dessert!~ (sorry, I only had my cameraphone)
All in all it sounds like we did great on our big review, afterall, we have a great organization!

Nanny Friday

Last Friday I spent all day watching kids and it turned out to be a pretty fun. I had planned on spending the entire day just cleaning up, doing housework stuff but I got a call right when I got done working from my friend Jess. She was frantic because her babysitter just called and said she couldn't watch her kids all day as planned. Well, both her and her husband were stuck at work. I didn't have a way to go get the kids and bring them to my house because I don't have room in my car for 5 kids so I went over to her house and stayed there for the rest of the day.
This is a picture of their dog staring at me while I read my book (I read about 100 pages!). Who knew I could be friendly with a pitbull? He used to scare me but he is so harmless.
The kids played so well and the little-er ones even took a nap. They had fun together of course.
I left there at 5:30 and then at 6pm the kids started filing in for our babysitting co-op for Date night that we do on Friday nights. I had 8 kids this time and I was on my own, Jonas was working. I couldn't believe how smooth things went. No meltdowns during dinner, no fuss about clean up, intently watching the movie, and then they all went right to sleep! Wow, that was easy.
Here they are all lined up in a row (they did that themselves) watching Stuart Little 2.

A Faithful Servant

What does it mean to be a faithful servant?

My thoughts have been on the life of President Hinckley this morning. I have been getting a lot of time between calls and stumbled upon all the many tributes that have been made for him, published online. I am amazed at his dedication, his zeal for life, and his relationship with his "babushka" as he called his wife at the member meeting in Moscow.

The best tribute that I have read is by the publisher and editor in chief of Meridian magazine, here is the link:
http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/080129bewithyou.html
It moved me to tears many times, and a few times I had to take a second to compose myself and take a phone call through tears. It has been a good morning.

I love the photo essay of his life here. It was also very touching.
I love the story of him bopping the security guard with his cane, of him waving at the crowds from the highest room in the Nauvoo temple, of him asking the missionary, "Are you as good a missionary as your parents think you are?".

I will never forget the feelings that I felt when he addressed the women of the church in the fall of 2003. Thanks to this link I can read the words again, but I will never, ever, forget how I felt. I felt like he knew me. He understood what I was going through. I remember commenting to my friend afterwards that it sounded like that talk was written especially for me. And she said the same. And that was the beauty of it.

Lastly, if you live far away and won't be able to visit the gravesite of our dear prophet, then
this article really did a good job of sharing it in a respectful way.



There are a lot of people pulling together to pay tributes to this great man. Today for the funeral, there will be people lining the streets waving canes, just as he used to do. There are people dedicating their run to his life today. There are people reading the book of mormon in 97 days, the length of his life in years. There were teenagers all over the country dressed in sunday best to school to show respect.

I too want to pay tribute to such a great example and life that he led.

http://www.meridianmagazine.com/

I am going to simply and quietly try a little harder, to be a little bit better.