Announcing the Next Democratic Candidate in Utah!

I live in Utah. It's not a big surprise that Republicans abound here. We do have our fair share of Democrats though, but apparently not enough. I got home from work a few weeks ago and there was a message on the machine. I listened to it. I couldn't believe what I just heard. I had to listen to it again to make sure I had heard it correctly. I had. It was the Utah Democratic Party inviting yours truly to run for office this year. Apparently they are so hard up for candidates that I look like their best bet and I'm a registered Republican. Go figure. Better luck next year in Utah Dems.

Seven Years and Counting . . .

It was seven years ago tomorrow that I married the love of my life. It's been better than I could have hoped for and there are still many more great years ahead. I still remember the feeling of comfort that came over me in the temple as Tim and I sat next to each other right before we were to sealed for time and all eternity. I will never forget that feeling. We were in the right place, at the right time and nothing could stop us, not even a water main break.

That's right, a water main break. I got a call from the temple on Friday. They said that there had been a water main break at the temple and it was closed. Uh, really? "What does that mean?", I asked. Basically, they said we had three choices. We could wait a week and get married in the Washington Temple when the break was fixed. Not an option. We had plane tickets to Florida. I was not spending my honeymoon in separate rooms. We could head down to North Carolina and get married in the temple there. Again, not an option. We didn't have a marriage license for North Carolina. Last option, we could get married in the Washington Temple as planned, but our parents would be the only ones allowed in with us. We were breaking the fire code to do it, but what else were we supposed to do. I spent the afternoon calling all the people we had invited to join us in the temple to tell them not to come.

While it was kind of crazy to think this was how we were going to start our married life, it was the most amazing experience. The temple was so quiet. We were pretty much the only ones there. Lights would be turned on as we entered a room and then turned off as soon as we left. There was such a feeling of peace, more so than any other time I have been to the temple. I could not have asked for a more memorable experience at the temple.
I love you, Tim and can't wait until I can say we've had another seven years together!

The Tetris Incident

So, my mom is crazy. She gets way too into video games and computer stuff. Just recently she joined Facebook and got into Farmville. I was checking my facebook before I went to bed the other night and noticed that she had posted something about farmville. I checked the time. It was at close to midnight her time. I commented that she better be careful or it might turn into another "tetris incident".

The "tetris incident" is as follows. After I came home from my mission, my mom and I were the only ones living in the house. We did lots of fun things together. One of those things was have Family Home Evening. Often, we would invite a friend who was doing an internship in DC. We'd have FHE with an activity afterwards. Sometimes we would play ping pong downstairs or a board game at the table. But most times we would play tetris. Now I know that tetris is addicting, but my mom took it to a whole new level. We would all play together for about an hour or so then I would take our friend home at about 9:00pm. Sometimes we would stay at his house and chat a little bit so I wouldn't get home until 10:30 or 11:00. When I got home, my mom would still be playing tetris. I'd head off to bed. My mom and I usually wouldn't see each other until late morning the next day when I got home from school. She would confess to me that she had stayed up until like 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning playing tetris. She would play other nights as well after I had gone to bed just as late as the previous night. CRAZY!

After a month or so of this, my mom says to me, "We need to stop playing tetris. I can't sleep at night. All I see is little tetris pieces falling in front of my eyes." "WE need to stop playing tetris? Sorry mom, you're the crazy one that can't stop playing to save your life." To save her from her addiction, I had to pack up the game and take it to work with me.

So, if you're my mom's friend on Facebook, please DON'T feed her addiciton to Farmville too much. It will get out of hand very quickly. Love you mom!!!! Oh, and don't look too closely at the tetris picture or you may start playing again. I don't think Bill could handle it.

We Have a Breakthrough!

Yes, it's true folks! After 10 months of waiting, Benjamin has broken his first tooth. You really can't see it because his tongue is in the way, but it's there. Not just a little bump under the gum, but a real, live sharp tooth. I thought this day would never come and he would have to continue to eat pureed food all his life. Yeah! Now this guy can come visit us.

Family Home Evening Equals Money!

Tim and I wanted to really start doing Family Home Evening this year on a weekly basis like we should. With Josh turning five at the beginning of the year, we thought it was time for him to have a weekly allowance. So, we decided that our first FHE would be about tithing. We told Josh that he would get $2.00 every Saturday. 50 cents would go to savings, 20 cents to tithing and the rest for him to spend. Josh was totally for it.

Well, the next week, we told Josh it was time for Family Home Evening again. We only had to tell Josh once. He jumped right up on the couch and was ready to go with the biggest smile I've seen on him in weeks. Our lesson for this week was on "God is the Father of my spirit". After a couple of minutes, Josh said, "When are we going to talk about the money?" "Well Josh", I said, we talked about tithing last week. This week we are going to talk about Heavenly Father." His once smiling face turned into the dirtiest look I've been given by him in a long time. He glared at both Tim and me for the next couple of minutes. But soon, the Spirit took over. Josh came over and climbed into my lap as we finished our lesson.

Hopefully by the time Benjamin gets his first FHE lesson on tithing, we'll have been doing them long enough that he'll realize that Family Home Evening does not equal getting money.

My Year in Status

Schedules

Schedules are great for kids, especially little ones. Josh put himself on a schedule very early. He liked his routine and he stuck to it. Benjamin took a little longer to establish a schedule, but he got it. Schedules are the name of the game in our family since Tim and I both work and have to be out of the house every morning by about 7:30am.

This week, I'm not liking schedules too much. I have two weeks off of work. I was hoping to sleep in at least a little. Monday morning I was woken up by Josh at 5:50am to watch TV. You might say, just turn on the TV and go back to bed. First of all, once I wake up, I'm pretty much up. And second, you can't really do that when your four-year old has woken up the 8-month old as well and he is listening to himself make screeching noises. Tuesday morning, same thing.

Here we are on Wednesday morning at 6:00am. Boys are both still in their room with the lights off. I'm hearing a little stirring but not much. Why then, you might ask, am I up writing this post? I woke up at 5:00 (my normal wake up time) and couldn't go back to sleep. Schedules, this week, are overrated.