Fun For Friday

Does anyone see a problem here?


I guess it's good they teach speech there, and not reading.


Happy Friday!

Fun For Friday

This is a little early, but I won't be around for the regular FFF.

Here you go.



It's like "Okay" but with a "B".

Okay, then.

Oh, and this same place also sells Webkinz. Strange combination, no?

Welcome

This is Noma. Or Oma, as Gretta likes to say.

She'll be joining our family on August 3rd. We are very glad she said yes. I guess we've all fooled her into thinking we're a cool enough family so she'll want to become one of us.

I wonder how long it will take her to figure us out? ;)

Congratulations, Dad and Noma. We love you.

Fun For Friday

This Friday brings a different sort of fun. I had the pleasure of interviewing miss Allison Averett Westenskow, of Gilbert, AZ. She and I go way back. Well, sort of. Her mom was my piano teacher back in the day. She taught better than I learned for sure. But I did stick with piano because of her, and now I can play fairly well. But I digress.


Allison and I have reconnected through blogs. You know how it is. We weren't ever friends when we lived in Utah, she is a few years younger than me, but her family lives near my in-laws, so I can keep up to date through them. Now that she has her own blog, I've learned a lot about her. A few things I've noticed are that she is a total babe. Very NieNie-esque if you will. She has great taste in music, you can listen to her play list on her blog here. And her family is absolutely adorable. So I took it upon myself to introduce all of you to all of her. Here goes.

Why did you start blogging?

I originally started the blog because we moved to Arizona and I wanted friends and family to keep up with what was going on in our family. Although, as time has passed, said family and friends don't look at very much, I have to tell them "Look at the blog!" I have sort of taken it over as my own and I put more things on there that reflect me instead of family related info.


You have Celiac Disease. Tell us a little about it and what it's like.

Celiac Disease! It is the devil. Really, it is a genetic auto-immune disease that affects the small intestine. You can have the gene for it all your life and never be sick, it has to be triggered somehow usually by stress. I was diagnosed with it when I was 24. My body thinks that the protein in gluten is toxic for my body and it is unable to digest it properly. My body tries to fight off the scary protein and in turn destroys itself. I get really sick. So, that means no wheat, barley, rye, etc. It was very hard at first, but I have been able to find things I can eat and there is more information about it than there was 7 years ago. There are a lot of gluten-free menus in restaurants now-a-days and I am hoping a big name celebrity will get it (other than Elizabeth Hasselback) and it will be cool to be gluten-free.

What are some of your all time fave movies?

Hmm, all time favorite movies. That is tough one, I go through phases, I usually like the more off beat type of movies. Edward Scissorhands, Reality Bites, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Stranger than Fiction, Nacho Libre, Little Miss Sunshine. I also like good action movies & 80's movies.

Describe for us a typical day in the life.

My typical day is blah, blah, blah. Haha, really, it is get up (against my will) get the kids breakfast, ready for school, take the kids to school, go to the gym, shower, play with Micah, lunch, go to the store, play on the internet (or read, listen to music, talk on the phone depends on the day) :), pick Alexis up from school, fix dinner, help with homework, read stories, get the kids ready for bed, watch T.V. (play on the internet, read, music etc) Go to sleep, wake up and repeat. I guess I clean up the house every once and while too.


If you had all the money in the world, what would you like to do?

Travel, travel, travel! I love to see new places and experience new cultures. I loved living out of the country and I hope to do it again someday. I would also love to solve all of the world's economic problems if I had enough money left over, oh and give to charity (really).


So that's Miss Allison. Check out her blog here, and stay long enough to listen. I love the world of blogs, it opens up so many doors. I love meeting new people that share ideas and values, I love keeping up with friends from far away, and I love reconnecting and remembering where I come from, and all the people that have helped shape the person I've become. I challenge each of you to interview a fellow blogger and post it.

Happy Friday!

Fun For Friday

This truck really gets around.

Have a happy Friday!

Fun for Friday

This week's fun for Friday might not seem fun to you, but it was for me.

Last night was our Temple night. As I sat in the waiting room alone, reading and crying, surprise surprise, a woman walked by the doorway. I vaguely saw her out of the corner of my eye. I did notice, however, that she stopped and backed up to look at me through the doorway.

Of course I looked up, and to my amazement, it was a good friend. Not the kind of good friend you recognize from High School or College, or even from the YMCA, it was a good friend from the blogosphere.

A woman I had never met in person, but whom I feel I know personally. And of all places to meet, at the Temple. I felt it was very appropriate.

She is as sweet and wonderful in person as she is on her blog, a nice surprise indeed.

So that, my friends is what makes today fun.

Happy Friday!

Friday Fun

Friday Fun shows an evolution of a Shih-Tzu when Sugar Daddy gets a hold of clippers and a wild hair up his butt.

Before. Fuzzy, unable to see where she was going, but warm.

Mid-cutting. I could have spun that fur into thread and sewn something from it, I'm sure. Maybe Shih-Tzu's are more practical than Alpaca's.

After. One.Very.Naked.Dog.

She hasn't been able to get warm for three days now. She will burrow under any sort of warm fabric she can find. I even found her lying in the sun that came through a small crack in our front window.

I feel bad for her. But in a couple of weeks she'll look much better, and hopefully we'll consistently be above freezing by then, so she can get warm.


Happy Friday!

Friday Fun

This weeks entry comes from Ken, of Michelle and Ken. He has some pretty funny stories from his various rotations throughout medical school. We were discussing funny names one night, and he came up with this one. He wrote it out and asked if any of us could figure out how to pronounce it.

Just so you know, I failed miserably. But you should totally try.

Here it is.

La-Ah.

Happy Friday!


* Okay, I know you give up. Here it is.

You pronounce it La dash uh. As in the dash isn't silent. Can you believe it? And I thought my name was always getting spelled wrong!

Friday Fun

Remember this movie? I queued it from Netflix, and the day it came it got watched 3 times. We've had it for 3 weeks, and I think someone has watched at least part of it every single day since.

I'm just so glad to see great flicks like this get passed on to the next generation.

Happy Friday!

Friday Fun

I am posting a Friday Fun today, but there is no picture. There is only pure joy. My kid got a root canal this morning, and she didn't even cry! This is a big deal, since she got us kicked out of the last dentists office.

I am so proud.

Fun for Friday

Click on over to my little bow store, and have a look. Neighbor Kate and I have been making and selling bows and clippies for the last 9 months or so. We are just so creative like that.



And on another note, it's Kate's birthday today, so head over to her blog and wish her a happy day.

Friday Fun

So that's where all our taxes are going.

Public education at it's finest.

Friday Fun

Thanks, Meg. For some reason I think yours would get a discount.

Friday Fun

Only on Saturday.

Did you miss me yesterday? I know you did. I was ripe with diarrhea and vomitous, so I took the day off, thankyouverymuch. But I'm back and I give you this.




This, my friends, is what Diesel fuel looks like when the weather outside is muy frightful. Like, -30 frightful. In Nebraska. On a Sunday. And we don't want to spend another minute in small town Nebraska, but we have no choice because we need a new fuel filter STAT! frightful. Did that sentence make sense? It did in my head.

I think Diesel fuel is supposed to look, more, well, fuel-y, than buttery. I'm just guessing, though. Good thing Sugar Daddy is good with his hands (wink wink) and got that bad filter out and the new one in in 5 minutes flat. He da man.

Friday Fun

It's Friday again. Yay. Christmas break starts today, thanks to an early call from the school last night canceling classes due to the impending snow storm. I'm saying good call (literally!) on that one, since we woke up to about a foot of snow. Emma was bummed, since they were supposed to have their class Holiday party today, but I told her I would let her stay in her jammies all day and have a fun day at home instead. That seemed to work.

So please forgive the tardiness of this post, I have been outside snow blowing my little heart out all morning. And without further ado, I give you this little beauty:



I love it. I laugh every time I drive by it. It's a sign posted at the Catholic church where Maggie goes to dance class. Oh, and the church bells ring every hour. It's so beautiful to hear them, and to see the birds fly out of the belfry. With the snow, and the boughs and the Nativity, it seems so very "Home Alone"-esque, which by the way was filmed somewhere here in Chicagoland.

So there you go. I hope to be able to get a few more posts in before Christmas, especially one last True Meaning Tuesday, but with the storms coming, and a 2 day drive ahead of us to the Promised Land, I can't make any guarantees. So if I don't see you before, have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Fun For Friday

The other day I received a package. No, it wasn't the loot from my win over at Tip Junkie, since that hasn't yet arrived. It was a mystery package. Something I wasn't expecting. That's the best kind of mail.

I rip it open, and what do I find inside?


This little beauty. Courtesy of Barb, over at Terrill Connection. She also included the sweetest little note, and totally made me cry, which under normal circumstances is hard to do, but lately, I'll cry just about anywhere. But I would have cried regardless. She is so sweet to send this to lil ol' me. I love it. It's adorable. And I will wear it with pride.

So thanks, Barb. You made my day. And having my day made, well, that's fun.

Fun For Friday

I don't know if this counts as "fun" exactly. Below is a snapshot of my Oregon Scientific thermometer. The top number is the outside temperature. The middle is the inside temp, the bottom is the time of day, and below that is the date. You will see it is today's date and time. But please notice the outside temperature. And this is without the wind chill. Yeah. Not so fun.


So what is the coldest temperature you've ever been in? And where were you?

Have a great weekend!

Say What?

What do you think it says? I have my own suspicions.

Fun For Friday

Let's begin this weeks Notable with a little preface. More into family history, which I know you are super excited about.

My Dad has a little bit of a wild streak in him. And I use the word "streak" lightly, here. It's so funny to me that a prude like my mom was never corrupted by him. No, she wasn't. Nope. No way. But oh boy, between my dad and his streak, Stevie and her antics, and Fred egging them on, there was no hope! For many, many years I was told that certain things were off limits to kids. The Hot Tubs at Lava Hot Springs. The Lake Powell beaches after sunset. I'm sure there are more, but I just can't remember right now. Of course, now I understand why we had been told these places were off limits, they had the right idea keeping us away! But once in a while, every so often, my dad would shed his protective skin, and "show some hair", and we would see more than we wanted. Many times Stevie was right behind him at the shoreline, waiting for him to take off skiing into the distance, and at the exact right moment, down go the drawers. I don't think this ever caused him enough anguish to even bother pulling them back up for a few minutes. So thanks to Nikki, here is another Noorda Notable. Enjoy.


Notable: Who can forget the many FULL MOONS we were privileged to see on our many water skiing trips. Full moons do look best over the water you know. Do you remember or were you to young and not easily impressed? (If you need a memory jog ask the fam) I believe I witnessed my first full moon of this variety in the presence of your family. (Oh, and can't forget the presence of Stevie and FRED)

Can anyone say HIT IT!!

Friday Fun

Okay, I feel like I need to indulge my grief a little here. It's almost like I can ignore it for a few days, but then it ambushes me, and I get completely overwhelmed. So in the interest of my mental health, I've decided to turn Friday Fun into a version of memory and laughter.

I will be highlighting Nikki and her Noorda Notables. I have no idea where she keeps these memories, because most of them had been long forgotten and stuffed away in the basement of my brain. So thank you, Nikki, for giving me a day of posting without much thought, but still conjuring up wonderful memories of my family. You're saving my sanity, and possibly my marriage! *don't read too much into that, you know who you are. there is no divorce action going on, so spare the rumor mill already.

Get on with it!

Way back when...about 24 yrs ago we had a combined YMYW activity where we were all given tickets to spend at booths in a carnival atmosphere. Away we all went spending our tickets on games etc. There were booths relating to scriptures and other gospel related things, pfft, who wanted to visit those. :) Well after a time the lights flashed and thunder sounded and the stage curtains opened up and there sat three men in white, Judgment Day! We were judged by our number of tickets, then divided into degrees of Glory. If you were sent to outer darkness you encountered Danny. It was....a dark classroom with no windows (the one that used to be by the bathroom), Electric Heaters and Flyswatters. Yes dark, heat and if you talked you were hit with a flyswatter. What should have been He** was actually so much fun, how can you not have fun being swatted with a flyswatter by Danny! :) Those of you who dont remember this probably made better use of your tickets than I! :)