Just Jackie

Goodbye, Farewell!!! (check out my new blog!!!)

Well I guess this week brings goodbyes to a number of different things in my life! But with goodbyes is always BRIGHT new beginnings! Today I say goodbye to typepad! Please join me at my new blog with blogger... http://just-jackiesue.blogspot.com . Unfortunately, some chicka stole my justjackie address so I say goodbye to that as well! ;-) I'm going to survive though because now I have added my middle name to the mix, and with that shall come a WHOLE LOT more personality! (probably not, but we'll pretend for now!)  So a big thanks to all of you that are always keeping up with me and I really hope you'll continue to check in from time to time! I'm thoroughly enjoying this blog world and am loving loving LOVING that what originally started with a friend of mine and then my desire to start, and we led our blog life for a whole year and then it finally became a contagious virus for the people I love... YOU!!! It's absolutely wonderful. I really have a testimony of blogging! I'm laughing so don't think this preaching thing is still on the tip of my tongue. But my point is that I really am thrilled to be able to read all my fellow bloggers sites and see what you all are up to!! I will miss Typepad... but it won't be going away anytime soon, so please feel free to come back here anytime... I have two years of archives and comments to save! Eek!!

President Hinckley video tributes

Goodness! I couldn't help but share these videos. I have goosebumps from head to toe right now from seeing them. Wonderful!!! I couldn't choose which one to share so I will share all. Take ten or fifteen minutes and share these with me when you have the time. They are great! Amazing person!!! Oh how I just love(d) him!!! Why is it that the death of this prophet is strengthening my testimony so much?? How is that even the way it is? I think it's just beautiful. I can't say it enough... please enjoy these videos. And I'm happy to say that youtube now has MANY good videos outweighing the bad after this death. So nice to see!!! There are way too many to choose from! Enjoy PLEASE. I really hope that you can!

Glenn Beck described so well exactly how I felt when I heard the news! It's like a big mix of emotions but only I only felt peaceful thoughts! I just loved hearing this short testimony of a man who changed lives!

I don't know what it was but I read the comments on each video sometimes to see what people say and this one comment just totally touched me so much and was said sooo well. It just brought to tears completely...

"I was on holiday in Samoa when i found out he passed away.. And as i sat there stunned, so did the other young men in that village.. That was Pure Proof.. That Gordon B Hinckley Touched The lives of anyone who listened to his words.. i Never Met him Before.. But He's my friend.. and i've known him my whole life.. Im Going to miss him.. Love From Melbourne Australia"

Well I don't know just what it was that he said that's any different from anyone else, but for me it hit home because I've never met him, but yet I feel he's my friend! I feel close to him! And I have known him my whole life. He's been our prophet through the most important phases of my life. And many of you know what I mean. From youth, up to adolescence, and reaching adulthood and experiencing all those changes and all that growing. I thought my one post dedicated to him was going to be it and then we'd all move on but I really felt like I should share these videos so thanks for listening to my second tribute to a man I surely love and I too will surely miss him and his sweet words. I just love hearing his voice and it still makes me feel so warm and peaceful. Thanks again for sharing!

I have been SOOOOOOOO BAD at keeping up on my scrapbooking. I did a massive wedding album of Craig and I and then I started an album of our married life. I did about ten pages in that, and that's where it ended. I decided to give up on our "married life" and at least start Linkins album. I bought tonz of things, and had big plans to get his done, and up to date. Well that didn't happen. I did about two maybe three pages and haven't had a chance to since! So being that I'm pregnant again, I think this is a priority for me. Really. Because it's important to me that my children have an album of themselves growing up and I think it's a fun "remembering" experience for me and a brag book I guess! Not that I ever show anyone really! Anyhow, so now that it's a priority I have to decide what is best for me because in this day and age there is so many options. So tonight I've been browsing many different websites trying to decide if there's a "digital scrapbooking" company out there for me. When we were living at Holloman, I started Linkins baby album with a company called Heritage Makers, but they charged me $20.....a MONTH!!! That's crazy if you ask me. That's just to use the services, and then you have to pay for the book once you want it made and that's no cheap thing either. I just think it's rediculous to spend $20 a month, not knowing how much time you can devote and the main thing that drew me away from their site and their service is that is was not user friendly at all. Ok I guess it was user friendly, just SLOW, and to look through their stuff was a nightmare. Each tiny little embellishment was seperate, they didn't have packs put together or premade layouts at the time, and each little embellishment took it's time to load so that the view would show up. It's hard to explain what I mean, but it just was not fun. They have some really cute designs though, and I went there tonight and their site has been somewhat updated so it's laid out a different way, and a little faster and easier to use, but I'm not HUGE on their baby papers and it's so limited in options in that theme so I chose to not use them for sure for final. Maybe. So... I went to Z scrapbooks and immediately I decided that their designs were just not as uppy as I'd like. Fairly boring and almost old school like. But I wasn't going to give up quite yet so I browsed through their catalog and decided they actually had some pretty cute designs hidden up in there after I did a search on "baby". So I put together a page. I thought the layout I picked was cute, but seeing the second page of it printed down below, it actually looks old school as I was saying. So, I did a little experiment of my own. As pathetic as this sounds, I made my own scrapbook page on MICROSOFT WORD. Now it's obviously not real 3D and fancy and what not, but really there's potential. I think it's so funny but it's just amazing what you can do with a dinky little program. I actually have a picture editing program and I'm sure I could mess with it enough to have a little success... but then I always go back to the drawing board... and here's my conclusion... I've spent thousands of dollars on REAL LIFE scrapbook supplies. I have like 50 stamp sets from Close To My Heart, and tonz of paper, brads, quotes, etc etc etc that I have bought over the years and a whole bunch of stuff bought precisely for Linkins baby album, so with all that going to waste if I pursue digital scrapbooking, I feel like it's not worth it. But I've been juggling the fact that with the time it would save me to scrapbook digitally, it might actually get done, where as since I keep going back to the I'm going to do it real life style, and then never doing... the stuff is going to waste anyway. So that's my struggle... So below here are the two pages that I have done on the computer. I just want to know today which page you like better. I mean it's simply obvious I'm sure, but just for experiment reasons. Don't pay attention to the white borders - obviously I could only post a certain size of these pages without everything going ski wompus. Anyhow... the second page here also may look a little didgy. That's my word for it kind of got a little blurry or digital looking through the format I used to save it to. The other one didn't get didgy looking but keep in mind that the green page is a page #2 of the layout. I didn't have the chance to upload the other page so it's a little cuter than it looks. a little. Also, forgive me for the bloody pictures...these are Link when he was born. Swollen and everything! He looks like someone elses baby. Someone elses baby with male genitals.

and this one is the one I did on Microsoft Word. It was super fast and easy too. Crazy! Neither one is my style at all, I mean they are my style, but I would consider myself more "tasteful" in that I would want more complex and cute things on a scrapbook page than these, but I guess tonight I'm trying to prove that using an online digital scrapbooking company isn't really always the best choice, or more that using one isn't necessarily going to get you a nice cute fantastically wonderful look. I don't know. So which one do you like more? Also Jenn... what digital scrapbooking company have you been using? Or tried? Or are you using photoshop? And if you are using photoshop, what do you do for paper choices and embellishments? How does that work? I'm just curious though I think I'm sticking to my final decision of scrapbooking "live" here at home in my specially made "craft room". Should be fun! I need to get on it! G'night!

My tribute to an amazing man!

Well as many of you know, the prophet of my church and many of yours of course, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has passed away today. Gordon B Hinckley at 97 years old, passed away today from "cancer complications, and old age". I feel an overwhelming feeling of sadness but more so a desire to share my testimony of the truthfulness of my church. First I will start by sharing my thoughts on this death though. I have been feeling for years now that it's an inevitable thing that was going to happen. I have had this amazing love for our Prophet for as long as I can remember. My hubby and I call it a "crush" but I think that's far exaggerating the case just for fun! I think he is the wittiest, funniest, most tell it like it is and righteous man I've ever known of. He is so cute too!! His legacy will no doubt forever live on. It's at this moment that I feel like I don't want to accept the reality that he's no longer going to be speaking to us and giving us council from the Lord. I know that we will continue to have council from the Lord through our next prophet, but it's hard to accept that his delightful face and sweet humor is going to end here - today! I can say that there are no feelings of remorse or sadness for any people involved... though it's going to be a big adjustment for all of us and no doubt especially for those that were closest with him, I feel that they are only going to have happiness for him that he is no longer experiencing this earth and he will rejoin his wonderful wife Marjorie now. One of my very most favorite quotes from President Hinckley is actually on the topic of death itself... it starts with a scripture....

A Better Life
Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. -Mosiah 2:41
"What a wonderful thing is death, really, when all is said and done. It is the great reliever. It is a majestic, quiet passing on from this life to another life, a better life. We go to a place where we will not suffer as we have suffered here, but where we will continue to grow, accumulating knowledge and developing and being useful under the plan of the Almighty made possible through the atonement of the Son of God." - Gordon B Hinckley.

Though I have never had anyone REALLY close to me die, I have turned to this quote many times for comfort. Because he talks about the whole picture which I think is very important for us to remember. It's similar to the fact that I don't live near my family at this time. Although I'm not with them now, I'm frequently reminded by my Dad that this is only but a minute, compared to the Eternity that we will have together. And of course, that's the same point that President Hinckley is making in this quote essentially. I think looking at the big picture every single day in our lives can help us to become better people but also help us to overcome the day to day trials and tribulations that we face. Though he is no longer with us on this earth, the Life and Legacy of President Hinckley will forever live on in my heart and the hearts of billions of people across the world. This man has done so much good for this world. So much good that has gone unnoticed really. The outside world doesn't quite know and understand how much service and self that he gave to every corner of this world. I just think it's something to recognize especially at this time of his loss.

I know without a doubt that Gordon B Hinckley was the true Prophet of the Lord and that his council was given us through him from the Lord. I know that through the organization of our church, our next prophet will also be called of God and will continue to bring us the Lords word and council. I feel so secure knowing that the Lords love is forever unchanging.

Today in relief society, we talked about the blessings we are promised from the Lord. We talked about how we know for sure that the Lord will come through on his end of the deal and it's so great to know that if we just do what he has asked, all those promises are guaranteed to us from the Lord. Now given, the things he asks are not necessarily easy but I believe that the more we keep the commandments, the easier it is to continue to keep the commandments, and the closer we are to the Lord, the easier it is to withstand temptation. Some of the blessings we talked about being promised from the Lord are forgiveness of our sings IF we confess and forsake them. He promises that He will open the windows of heaven, if we pay a faithful tithe. He promises that great treasures of knowledge accrue to those who obey the word of wisdom. The Lord promises that He will give us answers to our prayers if we ask for righteous things and with faith that we should receive what we are asking for. He promises that we will be unspotted from the world if we keep the sabbath day holy. Divine guidance and and inspiration are promised to those who feast upon the words of Christ. The Lord has promised that the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion if we let virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly. We are promised that we can loose the bands of wickedness, undo our heavy burdens, and break every yoke if we follow the law of the fast. And not last but last of what I'm going to mention, we are promised as members of this church... if we are sealed in holy temples and faithfully keep our covenants, that we will receive Gods glory, which is a "fullness and continuation of the seeds forever.

I just felt it was really exciting to go back and remember those promises that so easily slip our minds in this earthly day to day life. I feel motivated more to do good by discussing these blessings. This discussion was based on the talk in the Nov 2007 ensign of general conference talks. A talk given by Elder Spencer J Condie. If anyone is interested in reading it, I've attached this link... Gen Con Nov 2007 Elder Spencer J Condie

And below here is President Gordon B Hinckleys testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith while visiting the Sacred Grove. It's short but of course sweet. As he is a wonderful, cute and sweet man! (note to self: don't go to Youtube to find videos of Pres Hinckley. You will become depressed at the things you will find- though this video below if from there, it's one of about two that were positive in his favor. Sad sad world. Honestly, I hesitated even saying this because I think it should be ignored, but truthfully I just really am telling you so you are forewarned that there's no good out there.)

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,5143,695247765,00.html <---- this is a news article about his death, if anyone of you didn't get burnt by the wildfire spread of the news. (random analogy)

And below I wanted to list the timeline of his life up to becoming the president of our church... He is a very intelligent and highly educated man....It actually doesn't list his education credentials unforunately, but I'm sure I could find them somewhere. I feel bad I don't know off hand.

1910 Born to Bryant Stringham Hinckley and Ada Bitner Hinckley on 23 June in Salt Lake City
1919 Age 8, baptized by his father on 28 April in Salt Lake City
1930 Age 20, his mother dies
1935 Ages 23-25, serves a mission to England
1935 Age 25, hired as executive secretary of the Church Radio, Publicity, and Mission Literature Committee; he works in various capacities for the Church until he is called as an Assistant to the Twelve in 1958
1937 Age 26, marries Marjorie Pay on 29 April; called to serve on the Sunday School General Board
1961 Age 51, ordained an Apostle on 5 October
1982 Age 72, called as a counselor to President Kimball; later called as a counselor to Presidents Benson (1985) and Hunter (1994)
1995 Age 84, sustained as President of the Church on 1 April, with Thomas S. Monson and James E. Faust as counselors
When Hunter died after a presidency of only nine months, Hinckley succeeded to the presidency of the church at the age of 84. On November 2, 2006, Hinckley surpassed David O. McKay to become the oldest president in church history.

Hinckley was known for his aggressive building of temples. Currently there are 124 operating temples, 10 under construction, and 4 announced (not yet under construction). Before he became president in 1995 there were 47 temples in the church. Over two-thirds of all LDS Church temples were dedicated by Hinckley. Hinckley oversaw other significant building projects, including the construction of the Conference Center and extensive renovations of the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

(Notes from ME:)- I really enjoyed this timeline (below) for many reasons but two that I will mention. For one, it never occured to me that Pres Hinckley was the one to introduce "The Family: a Proclamation to the World", which I think is a really strong and firm foundation that we have in the church at this time. I guess I either just never registered that it was him, or it just didn't matter yet... but I find that interesting because I just didn't put two and two together. And the other reason why I think these next two paragraphs are great is because I read much about the Perpetual Education Fund a few years back and really studied to understand what it entails and it's benefits and how it works, and I'm a big supporter of this fund. To be honest... and I'm really telling the truth when I say this... and not boasting... but when I have thoughts of wanting to become "independantly wealthy" I honestly always think about this education fund. I don't know what it is about it, but I have a huge desire to contribute to this cause, and to be completely honest, the only time I think I want to have a lot of money, it's because I really want to do some good in this world and also because I want to serve a mission - multiple missions. Now "saying" and "doing" are definitely two different things and that's why tonight I'm making all my thoughts public because I'm hoping that will give me an extra push to follow through on what I say! That said...

On September 23, 1995, Hinckley released "The Family: A Proclamation to the World", a statement of belief and counsel regarding the sanctity of the family and marriage prepared by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve.

In February 1996, church membership in countries other than the United States surpassed that of the U.S. membership.

On March 31, 2001, he announced the Perpetual Education Fund, a large endowment that provides loans to students in developing nations.

On October 22, 2002, Hinckley participated in the dedication of the Gordon B. Hinckley Building at Brigham Young University–Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho. This was the first building at BYU–Idaho to be named for a then living church president.

In April 2003, Hinckley gave a speech in which he addressed the Bush administration's war in Iraq. He said "... as citizens we are all under the direction of our respective national leaders. They have access to greater political and military intelligence than do the people generally," adding, "Furthermore, we are a freedom-loving people, committed to the defense of liberty wherever it is in jeopardy." He also noted that "It may even be that He will hold us responsible if we try to impede or hedge up the way of those who are involved in a contest with forces of evil and repression."

In March 2005, Hinckley, together with Thomas S. Monson and James E. Faust, celebrated their tenth anniversary as the First Presidency—the first time in the history of the church that a First Presidency had continued for such a period of time without personnel changes.

On January 24, 2006, Hinckley underwent surgery to remove cancerous growths from his large intestine.

In June 2006, Hinckley traveled to Iowa City, Iowa to speak at a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Mormon handcart companies.

On 23 June 2006—his 96th birthday—Hinckley participated in a groundbreaking ceremony at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah for a new building that was to be named in his honor. The building was named the "Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni and Visitors Center" and was completed and dedicated on Hinckley's 97th birthday.

On March 31, 2007, Hinckley rededicated the Salt Lake Tabernacle after extensive renovation. Hinckley's last public appearance was on January 4, 2008, where he offered the prayer at the rededication of the Utah State Capitol.

At the time Hinckley became president of the church he had dedicated 23 of the church's 47 temples and had rededicated four of the remaining 24.

While president of the church, Hinckley presided at the dedication of 65 additional temples. Hinckley also rededicated five temples while president of the church, four of which he had dedicated initially. In all, Hinckley dedicated or rededicated 92 different temples — 87 while president of the church — at 97 different dedicatory services.

President George W. Bush shakes Hinckley's hand before presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, June 23, 2004On 23 June 2004 (Hinckley's 94th birthday), U.S. President George W. Bush awarded Hinckley the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony at the White House. The press release put forth by the White House stated:
AMAZING!!! And awesome!!!

"Gordon B. Hinckley [...] has inspired millions and has led efforts to improve humanitarian aid, disaster relief, and education funding across the globe."
Hinckley has received many educational honors, including the Distinguished Citizen Award from Southern Utah University, Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Utah, and honorary doctorates from Westminster College, Utah State University, University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and Southern Utah University. He has received the Silver Buffalo Award of the Boy Scouts of America, and has been honored by the National Conference for Community and Justice for his contributions to tolerance and understanding in the world.

(ME again): I just simply don't have the intelligence or time to list all the great and many wonderful things that Gordon B Hinckley has done in his life, but I can surely say I tried! I just love him so much as I love this gospel with all of my heart. I am so thankful to have been sealed to hubby for Eternity and that our children will be with us and we will be as a family not only until death do us part, but for Eternities~! What an amazing gift!

When listing President Hinckleys accomplishments and life timelines, I used Wikipedia, LDS.org for sources.

Happy Birthday Mr Man!!!

Yay! My husband is officially a year older! I honestly can't believe that he is that old! I remember my friend marrying a 27 year old when we were 20, and I thought that he sounded crazy OLD!! (sorry to say that out loud friend who you know who you are). he he!!  Now I'm married to a 27 year old. I actually had a little trouble accepting that he was 26 about summertime last year, I thought to myself..."how old is Craig?" well I asked my Mom and she said 26 and I was like, "no way, he is not!" it took some math to figure out that she was indeed correct and that just blew my mind, so really this 27 thing isn't too big of a deal. I already got over that hump last summer. :) So today was a boring birthday for him. His only request was that he didn't have to wake up with Linkin in the morning - especially since we both went to bed around 2 am. Linkin slept in a little however so it wasn't too bad waking up with him at 9:30. Yeah! When Craig strolled out at about 10:00 saying he had to study- I was allowed to go take a nap. OH HAPPY DAY!!! There is absolutely NOTHING I would rather do. Honestly, in the world- than sleep. Nothing. Yeah not a thing. (after writing nothing with a period, I thought to myself if there really was anything I would rather do and skycoasters came to my mind but I then wrote my next sentence confirming that there's nothing I'd rather do). So... I slept for a good long while until Craig finally decided to wake me up, to which I pronounced, "can I please snooze?" which is when he leaves the room and leaves the door open with the hall light on and lets me sleep for another ten minutes or so! I love him!! He's so good to me. And on his birthday too.  The guilt of it being his birthday fought with the sleeper in me and won after so long and I hung out with him the rest of the day.... awake...! He requested my homemade tomato basil squares for dinner so I made that and some garlic bread and we had salad. Yay. Nothing too exciting. The recipe is attached to that link though if anyone wants to try it! Although he seems to think that that "pizza" is pretty exciting as do I. Most people that have had it love it, but one time I made Craig and I one for dinner and an extra one because we were going to have people over. Well it turns out only Jay came and it was fairly later that evening so I had it in the fridge uncooked until he came. Well I threw it in when he got there while we watched a movie and grabbed it out when the timer went off. Then served it to him. Turns out he ate all of what I gave him but the next day, I went to eat it for leftovers and it tasted sooo nasty and gross. I was like what the heck? It was soggy. It wasn't cooked all the way. DANGIT. That just makes me so mad. I have given him a hard time about it ever since. Like he just chokes it down anyway. Reminded me of missionaries for some reason cuz they have  to swallow whatever they are served whether they like it or not. Poor things! Anyways... so I cooked those leftovers longer and it ended up tasting totally normal again. I have a lot of trouble when cooking for guests...seriously - Craig will rave about something I cook and I actually really like it too but then when I cook it for someone else, it's all downhill. I always fail when I have an audience.  Silly goose! So... back from my tangent- we didn't do anything fun for Craigs birthday, we stayed home all day and watched a little (or a lot?)  TV and Craig studied a little here and there. I made him a simple little birthday cake and we ate that together tonight and watched Dance War: Carrie Ann VS.  Bruno (GO TEAM BRUNO!!!) <---- there's the link to the Dance War site and you can vote there if you watch it and haven't voted yet. I thought Carrie Ann's team did superb in their second performance but I can't bear to see someone on team Bruno go home so I will probably always continue to vote for them!! : ) Poor Mr Craig... he had the lamest birthday ever. Our lives are just too busy and we are too poor for anything exciting to happen. All he wanted to do was "chill" all day which is really nice for him considering all his days are completely the opposite of that---super high paced and going going going. So it was nice!!

Craig received some really nice cards in the mail on Saturday from loved ones... you know who you are... thanks both Mom and Dads for the nice cards and gifts, and Grandma and Grandpa Dear. You are sweet! Saturday, we went "out" for Craigs birthday... we say it was for his birthday but I know he was doing it for me...because we FINALLY went to the Olive Garden. I'm sorry but can I just share how FANTASTIC it truly was. It made up for all the waiting I did for it!!! Oh my goodness... yum! The salad, the breadsticks dipped in alfredo sauce... yum yum yum! And we bought bananas over the weekend too but they weren't as exciting as I wanted them to be. I'm allergic to them though so that's probably why. And they weren't as ripe as I'd like. But Linkin is sure happy to have a stash of bananas again, it'd been like a week. He LOVES bananas!! He's such a Monkey!!! We also went shopping in Tupelo at the mall and found some AWESOME deals at Aeropostale. I got a couple hoodies both for under $10. You should definitely head in there if you haven't yet. You know, I should really start charging for these advertisements I've been doing. GOODNESS...I sound like a commercial! Anyhow... Craig got some new jeans "for his birthday" so we say but he would have gotten them anyhow because he really needed new jeans as he has grown 4 inches in the last year. So funny! He looks cute in his new jeans, I'll take a pic of his bum for ya'll. :) he he! Oh and those jeans were both like 50% off too. And they aren't ugly by any means, so it was all in all a great shopping experience. Especially for a few folks who don't have a lot of spending money!!! Saturday night we rushed home to host a "bon fire" party at our house. All the guys in Craig's new phase II class wanted to celebrate their "dollar ride" by having a little get together so we had them all over and we hung out and talked and what not. I made some cookies for all but once again, I feel like they didn't turn out that great since I had company. But the batch that I did for just us after everyone was done eating theirs was great, soft, chewy and much better. Go figure! So annoying. I get carried away talking and burn things. But just enough that it doesn't "look" burnt but it is so it's pathetic really, I should stop talking about it because it irritates me. He he! So that night was fun. We stayed up a lot later than we should have though so we had a little catchin up to do. And that's really all for now folks. Last night we rented a movie (whoops, on a Sunday) and watched it. It was a horrible movie. I thought it was PG-13 but turns out it was unrated, which is sooo rated R or worse I swear. It had more than one F word and more than one chick exposed. I should have titled this post confessions part I because I'm literally laying this all out there, but I guess it's for those of you who don't pay attention to the movie world anymore like me and so you don't make the mistake that Craig and I seem to have made a number of times this year. We go in the store and rent these "chick flick" looking movies with some comedy and  they turn out to be super raunchy! It's so annoying. So the movie was called Good Luck Chuck and I honestly didn't think it was going to be bad but it definitely wasn't a Mormon girl type of movie! And now that I start looking at info about it online, it clearly says it was rated R which means I got the rated R version plus!! ha ha! DUH!! I even called Craig from inside Hollywood cuz he was in the car with Link and said there's this one or this one and he's like well what's "this one" rated and I said PG-13, because usually if it's rated R I put it right back on the shelf. Problem was that they were out of stock of that one and I happened to ask the girl if one had been returned and it had, so she got it for me and then I began carrying it around without looking at the back I guess. UGH. Why am I explaining myself right now? I should have never even brought this up. It's just frustrating cuz it's literally the 3rd time this has happened to us. Only the other two times we might have made the bad decision on purpose instead of on accident, hoping it wouldn't be too bad. I hate movies I guess because I can't find a good clean fresh decent one. Any help or suggestions anyone?? Seriously, because I'd love some input here? Any kid movies that are must see right now or in the last year because I'm so not up to date! Ok so I had to share, I went to log out of the movie site where I was trying to find info about that awful movie we watched. Turns out, I'm not alone in my thoughts of it. It got 100 ratings and 97 rated it rotten, and it was a 2.8% out of 10!! He he! That makes me happy. Check out some of the reviewers comments if you want... Rotten Tomato!!!

For those of you who haven't noticed or don't pay attention to my "sidebar" items...check em out. I have added a few things over there but am going to be adding many more pretty soon here. You can see a quilt of my favorite music albums, or a map of the world showing where in the world "viewers" of my blog are. Those two aren't going to be that exciting for you obviously, probably because you mainly don't care but then there's going to be some that are fun for you - especially those of you reading this while you are at work. Right now, there's already one on there called the traveler IQ, and Craig and I played it for a while and it was really fun. You learn while you play. Kind of. I didn't pass round 1 but Craig got through like 8 rounds before he didn't pass a round so it was really exciting that time. So check that out! Also I'm going to be posting some quiz type stuff on there or survey shall we say that I will need your answers and opinions on, so keep an eye on those sidebar items as you read my blog!

Miz- HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you to death and I'm so thankful for you! You are the best father in the world and a wonderful husband! Thanks for letting me sleep on your birthday and CONSTANTLY every other day! I loved having a slow paced day with you and I really hope you like your presents (I didn't get him anything...ha hah ahaha!!!!!) It's really sad actually and not funny but honestly, I didn't. hah ah haa! so I laugh again.... ha hahahaa!  Hope you enjoyed your day! And thanks to all you who dropped by with some love to read this!! Patty - I love hearing from you, thanks for your comments, I really miss working with you. I miss working period I guess!! he he!! And I love getting comments from everyone else!!! So much. Stephanie, you are so cute... I just love ya to death. I think it's so funny how I can feel so "in touch" with you when you are like ten states away and we've only met like three times. It's awesome. Technology can do wonders if you use it wisely!! See ya'll!!

For those interested in what Craig is really doing here - this link is kind of a summary of what UPT - Undergraduate Pilot Training entails. It's designed for readers who are contemplating becoming Air Force Pilots I believe, but it will help our Moms and Dads to understand a little more of what he's doing... http://www.baseops.net/militarypilot/training_day.html  , and another.......

                http://www.baseops.net/militarypilot/upt_life.html

Dollar ride? Brief description - "The first flight in pilot training is traditionally called a "dollar ride," a term which is sometimes applied to the first flight in any flying training program in a new aircraft.  The student is so clueless and the instructor pilot (IP) has to demonstrate (and thus fly) so much that the student is essentially a passenger.  Traditionally, the student gives the IP of his first sortie a dollar bill as a "tip" for the ride.  The dollars are often decorated with magazine clippings (some more risqué than others), phrases, or other details that might characterize the flight, the student, or the IP.  Many UPT instructors' desks are littered with laminated, vandalized dollar bills."

Craig's dollar for his dollar ride he did this weekend. He found a picture of the Rob Schneider in Chuck and Larry - He plays the Asian marry-er (I don't know what those people are called? ha ha!) For those of you who've seen it, you would completely understand, for those who haven't... here's a clip of that part... and why it's relevant to Craigs dollar ride.  The dollar part is about one minute into it and it cracked me up again this time too so watch it!!! Good night all!

Great Night!

Tonight was a great night I have to say... ALL I WANT TO DO right now is get some shut eye but I liked to think my creative juices were flowing so I logged on for a must write post only to come up with what some like to call "writer's block"... it's a term I've become all too familiar with in the last couple of months. And judging by the number of times I've posted anything, you probably could have guessed that yourselves. Although, that wasn't "writer's block" that was "writer doesn't have a block - of time - to - write" or "writer doesn't have the bloody energy to write block". Block? Yeah I just threw that in. It makes no sense. Nor does anything I ever say. Wow.

So tonight - tonight was such a good night I must say. Although I sit here with a slight headache and stomach ache, I have to say that the time I've had to myself tonight has been seemfully a delight! See it started out by going to dinner with a big group of guys (and one gal) in Craig class to La Fiesta. A mexican restaraunt enjoyed by many - me excluded. See I'm not a big fan...so I ordered a sopapilla and you can't go wrong with cinnamon and honey. ? Anyhow, then we headed to our friend Jays house and played some FUN games for a couple hours and ate ice cream. Two new kinds were tried by me and one of them was called triple chocolate something. See, but it's not your average "triple chocolate"...cuz I don't like when it's chocolate ice cream, chocolate candy and chocolate fudge dripping. It's just too much chocolate for me- whose not a chocolate lover. Did I just speak those terms? Anyway... it's triple chocolate meaning WHITE chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate and they are seperated like neopolitan ice cream is. Wow. It's a delight. And for anyone who knows ANYTHING about me... you know that I am a HUGE huge fan of white chocolate. It's like the most delicious thing God created. He did create it right? Cuz all things are in God created or something right? I like to think He created all things - especially my favorite things. White chocolate is amazing and one of my favorites is the peppermint white chocolate hersheys kisses - and I love -gosh the name of the company just slipped my mind... they make those truffles in the bags... Lindt... that's it. They make these white chocolate truffles that are absolutely amazingly delicious! Oh my gosh, why do I say I'm not a chocolate lover?... that's chocolate- duh! I'm a HUGE chocolate lover. I take it all back. Goodness I did not log on here to talk about this "pre" part of the evening, much less to rampage off somewhere about chocolate. Anyhow we had ice cream, it was good, the games were fun and we went home. WAY PAST Linkins bedtime so he crashed as soon as we walked in the door. Well a little "tiff" so to say also happened between Craig and I as we got home (he is SOOO tired and completely exhausted from this weeks work/class and his body is still adjusting to waking up at 4 am so he's understandably tired and therefore excused for his bad behavior). So I took it upon myself to jump in the bath as soon as I put Link to sleep and I literally sat in there for like two hours reading my parents magazine. I got half way through the whole mag. See I just read them front to back these days so I make sure not to miss anything. I find out a lot of stuff that is very valuable perhaps in the future, and probably a lot of useless information too. But it's a great time for me. Then I got out, rubbed cream on my cracked dry nasty feet that were throbbing previous and then logged on to shoot out a few emails. I sent a nice email to someone, an advice like email - verging on lecturing so I hurried and pushed send, and a bickering email. So I think it's safe to say I'm well rounded. If you can apply the term there. Ok so the bickering email was a reply to my Dad sending me an email about how great bananas are in all these different categories, you've all seen it <--if not click there... its "bananas help this that and the other blah blah blah"... well the trouble with all that banana talk is that here I sit, with a lot of useless information and no bloody banana. Can someone say HELP!!! I need a friggin banana. I'm pregnant and I want what I want and now. And a delicious creamy, non acidic fruit no less. Despite all that though I remain pleased with my "by myself" evening and somewhat thankful for a so tired that his snoring could wake the neighborhood husband. Honestly, I was in the bath and his snoring literally vibrated into the bathroom. No lie, I jumped out of the bath, quietly tip toed out there and got the mini tape recorder and came back and put it on my empty pillow next to him and I believe it's still on record to this minute. He he. He'll never forgive me. Not only did I post about it, but I recorded it. WELL...he's always asking me what it sounds like and I tell him it's always different and no doubt about that cuz tonight was A LOT louder and A LOT deeper. No doubt an exhaustion type snore. And now he'll know...how pleasant it is to sleep next to a hibernating bear. That's just it though...he's a bear... so mean and vorocious on the outside but so soft and sweet down deep. AWWWW!! Sap. Throw me a bone here someone! So in place of the banana I so wish I could have eaten - I had a nectarine - a fruit I treasure - and an almost entire bowl of microwave popcorn. Oh and that's not an indulgent thing for the night, that a daily occurence right now. Is that bad? Anyone know the nutrition facts on that? Supposedly microwave popcorn can cause cancer... what bloody doesn't anymore? Honestly? I'm asking you. What doesn't? It seems like they are linking everything with cancer. Just because the person who developed cancer ate microwave popcorn everyday doesn't mean that it was the microwave popcorn that caused it. Ok ok, I get that it's not a study that brought this information and that it's probably a chemical IN microwave popcorn is known to cause cancer, but whatever the case... I don't care because I've had 25 bags of it since hearing that! Don't mess with me. So why did I get on here again? I feel as though I've accomplished nothing. Creative Juices? Blegh. That's nonsense. All this was was a pregnant chick ranting about different kinds of food she's eaten and how much she loves - well what else? Food. Reality though...food sucks and when I'm pregnant, I loathe it even more so. I'm constantly hungry and can not find anything that sounds good. Nor do I want to take the time to fix me up something. I think that's why the microwave popcorn has become so much of a habit is because it's all too easy and convenient. Pop it in. 2 minutes. DING. It's done. Although tonight I was so anxious to get to bed that my jaw started hurting from eating it too fast. That's when I thought of some things I wanted to say, and the thoughts kept coming so I logged on, mid popcorn eating and started to rant and here we are... bowl still half full... my belly not so satisfied and a bottle of sprite to wash it down and no closer to bed. In fact, I've shaved off another hour of sleep basically in this rambling. We all know that Craig is not going to want to wake up early with Linkin having had to wake up so early all week long so I'm down to about 5 or 6 hours as we speak and the words are still coming. Alright I'll call it quits. I can feel my carpel tunnel acting up. No lie. Ok it is a lie because I don't have carpel tunnel but just throbbing pains in my hands when overused. Probably arthritis. Yeah see ya. Good night. It's approaching 2 am.

OH MY GOODNESS... I finally remembered what I wanted to talk about. ha hah hahah ahahahha!!!

AMERICAN IDOL. Fans? Anyone? Ok so here goes another rampage. I just want to say (and many of you have heard me complain already about this and more than once I'm sure). Simon has been known to tell a few contestants, "you're forgettable" right? Well can anyone say HALLELUJAH to that because after Wednesday nights last contestant of the day and the show for the week, there is absolutely no one else I'm thinking of but him. AND the bloody song he brought with him. I have to say it's seriously hilarious. We've seen it all right? It's getting so old to see random people come in random costumes and random songs they sing and it just can't be funny anymore right? I thought so too. But it still was. Even hearing the same thing we always hear it just still was funny. I guess the contestant himself wasn't so funny but seeing Randy, Paula and Ryan dance with him was a highlight and my favorite part of the show - Simons reaction to anything. I have a crush on him. He's so mean and blunt and direct and hurts feelings and I STILL have a crush on him. I think he's a softy bear deep in there somewhere and I just love him to death! Oh but my point about the last contestant on Wednesday and where the complaints come in is that his DARN song has not left my head for more than two seconds since. NO LIE. Last night, I didn't fall asleep until 3 or 4 in the morning because my mind was racing with the words, "I AM YOUR BROTHER, YOUR BEST FRIEND FOREVER, SINGING THIS SONGS THE MUSIC THAT WE LOVE...OHHHH! WERE BROTHER TIL THE END UP TIME...TOGETHER OR NOT, YOU'RE ALWAYS IN MY HEART" AND ON AND ON AND ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you who aren't fans or missed it... it's a MUST SEE!

CAUTION: You will NOT be able to get the song out of your head for at least days, if not weeks. If you do choose to watch it... you must watch the whole clip because he is so cute and funny after the audition when he's talking about Simon. Oh I just love it!!! ENJOY 

Good times!

Well today I FINALLY began the task of organizing my "craft room". There is bajillions of unfinished and unstarted projects. Things I have purchased but never put my hands on. Lots of things! It's exciting potential but nothings happening with it. Anyhow, as I was unloading a few small boxes that hadn't been opened yet, I came across my book of poems that I've written. So tonight begins the sharing of my poems. Oh what a delightful and hilarious journey it will be as I reveal the hideous past I once lived. All these poems are from an "era" of my life known as high school. Craig likes to call it Hike school. Don't ask me why. I don't even know why I told you that. Anyhow, I once was a pathetic girl who had boys boys boys constantly ripping and tearing at my heart, and occupying most of my life! When I say the hilarious journey begins, you just wait until you see what embarassing I can do to myself. I know that only I will find them hilarious -- oh but your curious minds will for sure get a glimpse of a sad sad day in my life. Needless to say, I will be sharing my best kept secrets and opening the door to humiliation and regret. Todays poem however begins with a little less "depth" (shall we say) then the rest. But I also find it ironic and as you read, you will see there is one line in which I didn't keep my word. Tonights poem was titled...

UTAH
I love the beauty we have here
The gorgeous mountains that are near
Special places we can go
To get away where no one will know
I love our sunshine it's just right
The sky is beautiful at night
I love our parks where we can lay
Waiting for another day
The trees are amazing in the fall
We go on long drives to look at them all
The winter is perfect with awesome snow
Looking around here so many things grow
I love being outdoors and would stay there forever
If offered to live somewhere else I would never (ha hah ahahaa!)
The river it's gentle beauty is rare
Tonight I'll thank God for this place in my prayer

Alrighty then, so now I'm blushing! But honestly, how sad is that really? I miss my beloved home state!! It's so good to be out here seeing the world though. There's more beautiful places than just Utah. The fall here is absolutely AMAZING as well! I have some pictures I've developed that I've taken with my NON digital camera and as soon as I get them on CD I will share them, but it's really beautiful here in Mississippi too but Utah is Utah and I sure love it! Don't take it for granted ya'll that live there!

Lastly tonight... my favorite thing to share. Videos of my littlest Linkster buckeroo! Here are two videos that had me laughing. I hope to get the fact that he's a total Kooky monster across by showing these two videos that I took today. There's many more videos out there that have been shoved to the back burner but I shall stay on top of it today and catch up later...
Forewarning: The second video starts out real funny and then heads straight down hill as he throws a few temper tantrums and then falls and hits his head! Just a heads up!

Happy day!!!

I feel soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy tonight...I logged on here to write a post and I always check my comments first. Well usually I just make sure that the last comment on there is the one I read last and it usually is well tonight, I kept going down and down and down and down and there was so many new comments. I was thrilled!!!! I love to hear from ya'll so thanks so much for leaving comments and making me feel so darn special!! :)

We are very excited about our pregnancy as well. I think I kind of already established that in my last blog but the true definition of pregnancy is with us now as I scarf down a triple layered pure chocolate cake with like twelve spoonfuls of frozen whip cream. Wow! I'm crazy. Usually I would eat chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream but I just can't tell you how delicious this whip cream tastes. It's amazing!! Is anyone hungry? The irony of this little snack is that tonight Craig and I went over to another couple at our churchs house for "dessert night". There was TONZ of people there, hence TONZ of desserts. ha ha!! Wow I'm fat already. Just kidding, that's just it. The fact that I even am able to keep down anything let alone a dessert is amazing so I just take it one day at a time, and if my body wants chocolate cake, my body gets it!!! I started to realize though that pregnancy cravings don't just randomly come on. I think you have to hear someone say something about it or see it on TV or something because I never craved anything really wierd in my last pregnancy and this craving for major chocolate cake came on after hearing something about chocolate cake. It's more like my brain is wired that if it hears something it wants, it doesn't get over it until it gets what it wants. I read in parents magazine today though that a lady was craving cigarettes when she was pregnant, but she's NOT a smoker. ????? That's so bizarre and she's totally full of crap. You can't crave nicotine if you don't even know the sensation of it or the feeling it has on your endorphins. ha ha! I'm making no sense. I've been craving Olive Garden for like a month now. It's so sad because when we went to Utah the wait was like 90 minutes so no one would wait. I now continue to crave it but we are fairly far away from one so it's not easy making it to dinner there. But I'll continue to crave decent italian food until I can get my hands on some. The only "italian" food here in Columbus is Papa Johns. Pizza? Yeah I'm thinking more like....Mmmm....the breadsticks dipped in alfredo sauce and their yummy house salad with olives and parmesan cheese. Oh and the fettucine alfredo with grilled chicken. Or their cheese ravioli's with marinara sauce....Dude... I can't handle it anymore. And tomorrow is Monday!!!!! That means the possibility of getting to an Olive Garden is still five days away or MORE! :( so sad. I'm pathetic. I can't believe I'm rambling on about food when I have so much more to blog about!

So I found out tonight that the doctor I'm scheduled to see this week is the worst doctor in the world. I was referred to this clinic that supposedly is the best ever, and every doctor there is amazing EXCEPT one and it just so happens to be the one that I FINALLY made an appointment to go to. Wow, I have the worst luck ever. Tomorrow I will call and change it to a highly recommended doctor and the world won't end for me like it would have!

So like I've said before, I'm going to have to do some catching up on some family times that we've had that have been laid by the wayside. We've done some fun things and had some kodaks that I need to put in our family journal. So whether or not the time or season is now, I'll be throwing random blogs in about the fall of 2007. Can you believe it's already 2008. Were living the future! That's really crazy. We are supposed to be driving flying cars by now and have our SS#'s microchipped into our wrists! Oh well!

Ok so I have a list of things I've wanted to post on in the past and I just randomly chose our visit to the zoo for this time. There's actually a pretty funny story attached to this so here goes. Mostly I'm just doing this for picture posting reasons...

Holy crap that picture was put on here super large. HA HAHHA! Oh my, ok well there you go. So this is us at the zoo. This is some scary bird that I'm really glad wasn't on the loose. Birds are freaky. I have a friend here that's like PETRIFIED of birds and hearing her talk about it just makes so much sense. They are wierd! Well ok I love birds, just Magpies are freaks of nature and need to be killed. Also there's this happy bird here outside our house that is happy... ya know... when you aren't? You know, like you are trying to sleep and they are singing. And it's no pretty tune it's like the same damn thing over and over and you just want to shoot it with a sling shot. You know? Ok well that was a bit of a tangent, but yeah birds are amazing and wild and scary and so cool at the same time. This next picture is a bald eagle that completely and totally fascinated Craig and I. See-- now that's a cool bird. Bald eagles are amazing. And huge!!! I've been watching a lot of shows on the national geographic channel though and birds really are pretty impressive. They actually have some smarts. I saw one dive into the ocean and grab a friggin snake with it's bare hands and fly off holding this huge old fat anaconda or something! It was crazy.. I also saw a clip of a bird doing a fly by on this sloth that was in the wrong place at the wrong time... on a limb of a tree just slothing it's way to where ever...sloth- ville I guess. I didn't actually know sloth was something other than the character on goonies until I saw this but anyway, the bird just flew by, grabbed the scary looking monkey thing and flew on and gave it to her babies to devour. Amazing! You're all thinking...duh we know birds can do those things but I just think it's very impressive to be able to time and see when a snake happens to surface and have the skill and speed to grab it and then carefully carry it so you don't get killed by it. That's impressive! This picture doesn't do justice for how large this bald eagle really was. I'm talking it was like half as big as me. No kidding. It was way bigger than Linkin at the time. How in the world does a bird get that big. And keep me out of it's path too! He kind of looks dirty and ugly in this picture too but he was beautiful! Poor guy. I need a better camera.

Linkin loved every minute of the zoo. He was kind of wierded though I think. Like what the heck is that Mom. You can tell by the serious look on his face in every picture. He's usually staring at some animal. Except for these cute picture of him being kooky in his stroller! He's always putting his feet up on things. It reminds me of myself because I cannot go in the car without putting my feet on the dash. I did it when I was in junior high driving around with my Mom - it was an occasional argument with her and I do it now and Craig still treats me like I'm in junior high, and tells me to take my shoes off if I want my feet up there. When will I ever have independance?? Just kidding. That's a legitimate request I think. I should have named this post...TANGENT... because I've gone off on one too many. Anyways... Linkin.. yeah he's cute. I like him! Look how cute! A Kangaroo. I've always LOVED kangaroo's and have always wanted to visit Australia because of them, but this day I realized the true hideous-ness they posess. Aren't they just ugly? Ok they are kind of cute but Craig says they are like large rats to the australians. No one likes them? I don't know... I may have just made that up. I can't quite remember! Look at that green grass. Oh how I miss the warmth of the desert. Oh how I dread the warmth of the south! Craig and I actually thought it was unusual to see a kangaroo at the zoo because we don't recall having them at our famous Hogle Zoo in Utah. Man that zoo stinks and this one, well it's even more pathetic than the Hogle Zoo! ha ha! The highlight of the whole zoo is this BEAUTIFUL cat. Look at it. Oh how I wish it was my pet and sleeping in my bed purring each night. It's so cute and sweet! It was just the right size too. Oh I love it!!! Isn't it so sweet?? AWWW!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Here's my boys... There's a crazy smile from my crazy boy!! ha haha! That's hilarous to me. It's like a cackle smile. He should have fang teeth. Oh which reminds me. Linkin only has three teeth to his name. He's almost 16 months old and he only has three teeth... but one of them is one of his fang teeth.  ha ha! It's so funny to see it sticking out when he laughs or smiles. I love it!! When will he get more teeth? The thing is though... he doesn't need them! He chews just fine without them and can eat almost anything!!! Such a funny boy! He's got the kookiest personality I've ever known! Goofball city~! Here's them again... So I am a big monkey lover. When I was young, I literally thought that someday I would beat the odds and own a pet monkey. I was determined to make it happen no matter what the cost or responsibility! Now I can't even take care of a dog, so a monkey is so far out of the question it's not even funny! But needless to say, I love seeing the monkeys at the zoo. Chimpanzees, Baboons, Monkey, gorillas anything. I love the species. So we sat an watched them for quite a while and then also watched them again on the way out. Well one monkey was really fighting for my attention. He was running and jumping up on the fence where I was leaning to take pictures. He jumped up and then stared and then jumped more and stared. Literally, showing off! Like honestly, trying really hard to impress me. No lie. Craig knew it. Everyone knew it. And he wasn't doing it at Craig, it was at me. Smart thing man. He really has taste I think! Just kidding. Anyways... the point of the story is that it got a little more graphic sooner than later with him as his little weeny rose to the occasion and he began to please himself if you know what I mean. Unfortunately being the capture every moment person I am, I busted out my camera as soon as possible only to miss it by a stroke. Nasty!!! I can't believe I'm actually typing disgusting things on here. I really am sorry. It's just a story that I had to share! Here is a picture of the little pervert. Not a very good one but there is a video of him being a nerdy monkey that I took afterwards. Feel free to watch it! Ewww what a creep!!! They are so close to humans in nature that it's really awkward to even be around them. Especially when faced with unusual circumstances!  So our time at the zoo was short and sweet, but we had fun and Linkin enjoyed his first zoo experience. I look forward to taking him to the decent zoo out here when it warms up. I wish I was a fun Mom. I was reading my friend Andreas blog and she had pictures of her and husband sledding with their baby. (gosh I think she's about 9 months now?) Anyways, I was impressed and thought that in my next life, I wanna be their kid. Although my parents had us constantly entertained too so I guess I'll keep my childhood! Thanks for sharing my life with me. I love all of you!! I know I keep asking but if you haven't already sent me the link to your blog, then PLEASE do as I really would like to see everyone's! Yay! Here's the monkey video.... yeah I guess I don't have it. Can't find it anymore. Lucky for you!!! Have a good day!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Exciting News!!!

We are ADDING TO OUR FAMILY!!!! Yep, you heard me right- I'm PREGNANT!! Eek. This is some of the reason why I've been slacking at writing on my blog for the month of December and up until now. I have so much to say, so much to post, so many pictures, so little energy! It's been a roller coaster ride of sickness from day one. I actually knew I was pregnant because of the sickness...

One night we were on our way home from dinner and driving in the car with one of our friends. I was telling them why I wasn't talking before dinner much because I felt really really nauseous again - because it was the second night of being nauseous without eating. So Jay asked, "are you pregnant?" Craig and I both exclaimed at the same time, "NO!" and he was like, "well you sound like you are!" Then I got to thinking... hmmm... when was my last period. I started to think back to Holloman and the time we were moving and remembered that I started the day we were supposed to leave there. Turns out the math put me way LATE! I took a pregnancy test early the next morning and sure enough - POSITIVE! Eek. We were trying to get pregnant, but then decided like a week before taking this test that we would rather get pregnant after March which is when I will be taking Little Link to disneyland with my family. Being the kid I am, I wanted to ride all the rides and have the time of my life and not be pregnant. Well - God had other plans! So NO it wasn't an accident, and YES it was planned - in some ways. he he! People are so annoying, the first question I get asked is always, "were you trying?" just because my kids will be close in age, doesn't mean they are accidents. ha haha aha! Just kidding, you all know who you are that asked that. Uh everyone! ha ha! Two years apart is really not THAT close either. It could be worse!

Word got out rather QUICK this pregnancy. Craig had to tell his class leader in Pilot training because he needed permission to keep his cell phone on him since I have horrible pregnant days. One guy, turned into ten real quick and we had a little holiday party at our house when I had only known for five days and so did all them! Then I couldn't keep the secret from my Mom and Sister because I needed people to complain to. And two turned into everyone else! I'm still only like 9 or 10 weeks along. Haven't been to the doctor, but I REALLY need to make that a priority like quick! Ok I take it back, I've been to the doctor. I went to the clinic on base and took a blood test and got positive results. I also saw my Primary Care Manager (Doctor) because I was so sick I wasn't keeping anything down and was MISERABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so they gave me some anti nausea medication and sent me on my way. So I haven't seen an OB yet.

I actually prayed and prayed and prayed that I would be well while we were on vacation in Utah and God is great and answered my prayers. I had just enough energy to get to Utah on the plane without being sick and enough energy to be with my family and enjoy their company and the plans that they had for us while we were there. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see as many of you as I would have liked (Kecks, Mikelle, Anne, Applegarths, I really would have liked to meet baby Jonas and all the other new babies!) So sad. But maybe my visit in March will allow for those visits!! And then I got sick the day before leaving and was sick for three days upon returning, and now... I'm feeling good again. It's been a delightful three days or so. I have energy to do laundry and dishes and play with Linkin a lot. What a difference your quality of life and happiness when you don't feel deep stomach pains and nausea! I love feeling well. Knock on wood!

Oh dear. I have a lot of catching up to do. So discouraging. Wow. I'm overwhelmed! I miss you all because in slacking on my blog, it means I slack on reading yours. I'm REALLY excited though at how many of you have started new blogs. I can't wait to see what you have to say and what your life entails... Coleen, Anne, Shiree, Mikelle (fairly new), man everyone really. It's a catchy thing and it's addicting and fun and very good for family record keeping. Love to all,