More words of wisdom from my nephews.

I know I haven't posted for a long time and I am sure people don't even look at my blog anymore. But I find myself stuck in an airport. (I was flying standby to New York.) So I have some time on my hands. I decided maybe I would document some things that my nephews have said that make me laugh. 

Marshal is now almost 8 and that kid is full of wisdom. One day at 7:01 he said, "Lisa, it has been one hour and one minute." I said, "Since what?"  Marshal: "Since six o'clock. " He always delivers it so matter of fact like I am the moron for not realizing. 

Another day we were heading to Orderville in December via "bear valley". I jokingly told the boys to watch for bears. The older two boys said "Utah has bears?"  Marshal, five at the time and acting like we were all so stupid said, "Bears hibernate in the winter."  

One day when we were in Orderville Marshal asked his mom if she would walk to the cemetery with him. She asked what for and he said "to see the dead people in Orderville." To him it is always so obvious. 

One day his 1 year old sister was playing with a magnetized book. He told her she couldn't play with it. My brother told him to let her play. He then told my brother, "But dad, it could be a choking hazard. It is only for kids 3 and over."  He just wanted to follow the rules. I love that kid. 

His sister Shelayne is going to be a handful! When she was not even two my brother said her name. She didn't even look up from what she wan doing and said, "I can't hear you."  Not even two!

She told me not to long ago, "My mom said to play with your phone." Oh really?

My next story comes from my 5 year old nephew Hogan. I was cutting his hair the other day,

This wasn't the finished product, anyway I was talking to my sister and I said something about if I start having kids. (No I am not dating anyone) Hogan said, "I was just going to ask you." I said, "ask me what?"  Hogan: "If you were going to start having kids soon."  Me: "Well, I need to find a nice guy first. "  Hogan, "You just need to search all over the city....but not the married ones. And if he doesn't have a name just call him George."  If only I would have realized before now to only look at the single ones with no names. 

Hanging with Celebrities?

Jeff, Erica and the kids came out to Salt Lake from Connecticut for Erica's Great Grandma's 100th birthday at the end of August.  They didn't have very much time so my Mom, Lyle, Suzie, Shelayne and I drove up Friday August 24th to spend the afternoon with them.  On our way up there Jeff texted to ask where we were.  We decided to tease him and we just told him a mile marker.  He wrote back with "Oh so Fillmore area?"  And yes, that is where we were.  I am pretty sure the only people who would know that is truckers and Jeff.  The night before our trip NBC aired a special Rock Center about Mormons.  Jeff's father-in-law had been one of the people that they had interviewed.  We had know it was on but hadn't been able to watch it but my Mom had recorded it.  Here is how the next bit of me and Jeff's text messages went.

Jeff:  "Are you all nervous to be meeting celebrities today?"

Me: "What celebrities?"

Jeff: "Um..Me, Erica and Ellie.  We were all on national television last night on NBC."

Me: "We didn't watch it but Mom recorded it.  What roll did you play?"

Jeff: "There was a family pic from Daniel's wedding on the screen for like 5 seconds."

Me: "Well we are not just meeting you.  We have already met you."

Jeff: "I know but it's only last night that I became a celebrity.  And it's gone straight to my head."

Me: "Are you buying lunch then?"

Jeff: "I didn't say I had cashed in on my celebrity, so no.  I just meant that I'm probably going to be insufferable."

Me: "We are turning around and going home."

Jeff: "You can't do that to me!!!  I'm Jeff Goulding!! I have a minuscule amount of tangential fame!!  You will come and you will eat lunch with me and my famous family!!

Me: "Well I hope we don't have to cut our visit short."

Jeff: "Your visit will last as long as I want it to."

Me: "Well here is something you can't control.....we are going to eat all of your honey candy (my sister had made for him) before we get there."

Jeff: "How dare you!  You can't do that to me and my tiny amount of fame.  It will be in no tabloids and no one will really care!"

Needless to say we were all laughing pretty hard.  He is such a dork.  A funny one though.  

So here are some pictures from the trip.

Ellie

Shelayne cheesing it for the camera.

Ellie wouldn't let me get a good picture so I had to surprise her.

Adam wouldn't smile.  But he was letting Lyle hold him without crying.  None of the rest of us had been able to do that.

These two had a lot of fun together

This was Ellie when we were about to leave.  I think she was sad that we were.  It was too short of a visit.

This was the final shot of Adam before we left.  He is a sweet little guy.

My Favorite Picture of All Time

 

This picture is of me and my Dad.  I don't have a date for it but I assume I was three or four. I post it today because today is the day he died thirteen years ago.  I'm not looking for sympathy I mostly just wanted a reason to post the picture because I have been wanting to make sure I preserved it.   The first time I ever laid eyes on this picture was the night before my Dad's funeral.   My Aunt and Uncle found it in their collection right after my Dad's passing and made a copy for me and my Mom and brought them to us.  It has become quite famous in my family.  My Grandparents wanted a copy and I think most of my siblings got one too.  It has hung on my bedroom wall ever since.  My niece was about that age at the time of my Dad's death and she looked a lot like me.  We displayed it at the funeral and people kept saying what a cute picture of my Dad with his Granddaughter.  I corrected them, don't worry.  I mean looked at those awesome sunglasses in my hand! Those were so 1983 not 1998.  :)
I love the emotion you can see in his face.  It makes me feel very loved.  I've always thought that I must have been thinking, "Yes, I have him wrapped around my finger."  I think about him a lot and especially this time of year.  He is a good man and I miss him everyday.

Summer Road Trip 2011

My younger brother got accepted to NYU and therefore was moving across the country.  One day in June I got a text message that said "How would you like to spend 40 hours with your brother?"  I replied with "Driving to New York?"  He said "Maybe."  So I then asked "How will I get home?"  He said, "Fly on my dime."  I said, "I'm in."  It didn't occur to me until the next day that Nauvoo Illinois (Where my Mom is on a mission) is on the way.  So I asked my brother if we were stopping there and he said that was part of the plan.  So then I was even more excited!
Wednesday, July 13th we finished packing the back of the 4-Runner, attached the U-haul trailer (which took four of us standing on the back to do it) and headed out. 

Disclaimer:  A lot of my pictures are taken from inside the car.

Wyoming had a lot of windmills and I found them very serene.

We hit some heavy rain just after Rock Springs, WY

The rock formations were cool.

Can anyone guess what state this next picture is from?

I hope you guessed Nebraska.

The first night we stayed in North Platte, Nebraska.  We were hoping to find some good local food that night but we got there a little late and the only thing still open was Applebee's.  It was disappointing. 
Thursday, July 14th we got out to the car and Jeff realized that he had left the driver's side window down the whole night!  Some of his most valuable stuff was inside the 4-Runner.  Nothing had been touched.  The drivers side was up against a fence and I don't think anyone had even looked.  Thank goodness!
Right before we crossed into Iowa I realized we were pretty close to the Winter Quarter's temple so we took a detour and went and found it.

It was beautiful.  There is also a pioneer graveyard right by it.  We walked around it too.  It was very peaceful.

 

Right after that little detour we entered Iowa.  I think Iowa has more corn than Nebraska does.  It also had very picturesque farms along the road.
That evening about 6 pm we made it to Nauvoo, IL.  We teased my Mom and told her we had gotten a late start so she wasn't expecting us as soon as we got there.  Her and Neal had the night off.  So they fed us dinner and then drove us around Nauvoo.  I wish I could have taken pictures of the firefly's.  I love them, they fascinate me!  In fact we hit one in the car and the guts glowed on the windshield for a minute.  Only bug I felt bad about killing. 

The mighty Mississippi at sunset.

They also took us to get frozen custard in town.  It was delicious!  My Mom was so excited to introduce us to the owner of the custard shop.  There also happened to be other missionaries there that they were happy to have us meet.  My Mom and Step Dad live in a little fifth wheel trailer so they had arranged for us to stay at a house of some people they know.  The people had a basement with two bedrooms, bathroom and a separate entrance they would leave open for us.  It was very nice. 
Friday, July 15th, my Mom and Neal were busy so Jeff and I went to Carthage.  The minute we stepped out of the car I could feel the spirit there.  We of course took the tour so we got to see the jail and the room where Joseph Smith was last alive.  It really did make everything I have heard since I was little a lot more real.

Before going back to Nauvoo we drove into Warsaw.  Back in Joseph Smith's times they had a printing press there.  It was putting out anti-Mormon publications.  I heard that one of the church leaders told them they would never prosper.  The printing press and most of the main street looks abandoned.  It is kind of a dumpy little town.  Jeff also wanted to drive into Missouri so that he could say he had been there.  After we got back from Carthage and ate lunch we went to a show called "High Hopes and Riverboats" that was put on by the Young Performing Missionaries.  It was really cute.  Then we met my Mom and Neal in the grove where the guy who plays Joseph Smith in the pageant gave part of the King Follett sermon.  He was dressed in character and it felt like I was there. 

That night we got to see "Rendezvous".  It is the cute little play that the older missionaries perform.  We of course saw the one that my Mom and Neal were stars in.  I loved it!!

We were lucky enough to get pictures with some of the cast. :)

This was their big scene as Jed and Annie.

Jed is not a member of the church and Annie doesn't want to date him because of some of his ways.  Anyway they find out that saints need to leave Nauvoo and Jed realizes that he is on the saints side.  

Here the men are singing "We'll leave willingly, because we have to"

Saturday, July 16th was my Mom and Neal's P-Day, so they hung out with us all day.  It was nice.  We went to their trailer for breakfast.  Then we went and took a tour of the buildings that the Community of Christ church still owns.  It was a good tour.  We are pretty sure that the our tour guide was a member of our church which I think was a benefit to us.  He was very diplomatic in how he presented the information.  The Community of Christ owns the Nauvoo house, the Mansion house, Joseph and Emma's first house in Nauvoo, Joseph, Emma and Hyrum's graves and the Red Brick store.  Jeff was mad that they own those sites but they are doing a good job at preserving them.  It is thanks to them the graves are there at all.  Emma had hidden Joseph and Hyrum's bodies and they found them and created the memorials.
Following that tour we were able to go to a little vignette that some of the pageant performers did.  It was John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff and others that talked about the missions that they were called on and the sacrifices made.  I felt like I was back in time.  It was so touching.  The spirit was so strong and it brought tears to my eyes. 
After that we went and did a session at the the temple.  It is a beautiful building inside and out.

Later that evening we got to see the other show that my Mom and Neal are in.  It is called Sunset and it is a series of little skits that the older couples and the young performing missionaries do together. 

I loved this one too!!  It was so cute and a lot of fun.  Then it was time to go to the pageant.  There was a lot of people there.  I ran into a guy that used to be in my singles ward in Cedar City.  That was pretty random.  The Pageant was so so good.  I never wanted to go to Nauvoo in the middle of the summer because of the heat and the humidity.  But I am so glad I got to see all the extra stuff that they have going on during July.
Sunday July 17th we went to church with my Mom and Neal.  They only have sacrament meeting.  I could get on board with that except it is at 8 am.   They had a visiting authority that we got to hear speak.  It was Elder Costa from the Presidency of the Seventy.  After church we went and walked around the women's garden that is right by the visitor's center.  It is really pretty.

After that we went back to my Mom and Neal's trailer and they made us brunch.  Then it was time to hook the trailer back up and head back out.  Is was really hard to leave. 
We drove all the way through Illinois and Indiana that day.  We were still seeing a lot of corn and soybeans.  Somewhere in Ohio we ate at a yummy Italian place and we stopped for the night in Mansfield, Ohio.  We stayed at a Fairfield  Inn.  I only mention this because it was way nicer than the place we stayed the first night and my bed was so comfortable!  It was the best sleep I had had the whole trip thus far.  
Monday, July 18th we drove some more.  When we got to Pennsylvania we made it a

Jazz Game and Ellie

A couple weekends ago I went to Salt Lake.  I had never been to a Jazz game and had been saying I wanted to.  My brother told me to come for one but what he really wanted was a haircut.  He then enticed me further telling me that his daughter could say my name.  I couldn't resist.  So Friday night the 14th my friend Natalie, my brother and some of his other friends went to the game.  Our seats were BAD.  No lie we were on the very top row.  It was still fun though. The Jazz were playing the Cavaliers.  The half time score was 70 to 50 in favor of the Jazz.  In the 3rd quarter it was a 9 point game at one point but then in the end the Jazz beat them pretty bad. The final score was 121 to 90.  The play of the game I thought was in the second quarter when there was consecutive around the back passes by two guys and then Ronnie Price hit a lay up.  Not to long after CJ Miles dunked it. 

This kind of shows how far away we were! :)

Natalie and I

The best part of my weekend was playing with my cute niece of course.  She is getting so big.  The first video is her saying my name.  The second one is of her singing the Elmo song.  You only need to watch the first 10 seconds of the second one.  The third one is her dancing.  She is cute!!!!

Isn't she darling!!!
That weekend I also went to brunch with my friend Julie.  It was good to catch up with her.  Saturday night I went to my friend Amy's birthday party.  I am friends with her whole family and they were all there except the youngest brother.  It was so good to see them all.  I had such a good time.  It was a really great weekend. 

Christmas 2010

You can tell she was really excited.

This year for Christmas I went to my Brother Lyle's house.  Christmas Eve we were going to go to Orderville for my Grandma's annual Christmas Eve party but the mountain road was closed because of getting a lot of snow.  So we didn't make the trip.  Instead we went and looked at Christmas lights and then Andrea (my sister-in-law) played the piano for me so that I could play some Christmas songs on my violin.  Then the kids opened one present.  They begged and begged their parents to let them get up at 6 am.  My Brother told them 6:30 am.  Surprisingly they had to be woke up at 7. 

The two older boys got air soft guns which they spent all day outside using.  And Marshal's favorite gift....a pillow pet.  He walked around all day saying, "It's a pillow, it's a pet, it's a pillow-pet."  I asked him where he heard that and he said, "From the comarshal."   That's right he thinks commercials are comarshals.  He also got a game.  When he opened it he said to his Mom and Dad, "Oh!  This is the game that was under your bed and you wrapped it and gave it to me!"  He said it very innocently like he had no idea he had done anything wrong by snooping.  It was pretty funny.
I got money.  Which my brother thought would be funny to give me in all 1's and 2 dollar bills.  It is a very Lyle thing to do.  He told me it was to buy new haircutting scissors with.  Which I do need.   
Later we had Frogmore Stew for Christmas dinner.  It is a meal that my brother learned on his mission in South Carolina.  It doesn't have frogs in it and it really isn't stew but despite the name it is really good.  I made a delicious cheesecake for dessert.  
 Well it wasn't a white Christmas but it was pretty foggy and it almost looked like one.

This other picture came from main street a couple nights before Christmas.  I thought it looked really cool with the fog.

It was a good Christmas.  It is hard to believe it is over.  New years was fun.  I didn't take any pictures but me and my friend Libby went to dinner and watched a movie.  Then we went over to some other friends house for a little party.  I guess I am getting old but we came home shortly after midnight and I didn't stay up too much longer.  Anyway, Happy New Year everyone!!

My Cousin Won!

My cousin won and will be getting free lasik eye surgery.  Congratulations Ryan!!  And if there were any of you that voted for him from reading my blog I say thank you and I am sure he does too.

Please Help My Cousin

My cousin posted this on our family website and in hopes of helping him out I decided to post it on here so that maybe some of you would vote for him too!!  I watched the video and it is the cutest thing ever.  It is his daughter Sophie narrating and his other daughter Emma that drew the pictures.

Greetings Family!
So I know that most of you (if not all) have been informed about the Hoopes Vision Lasik Contest that we're a finalist in. The support that has been shown our family has been overwhelming. I know a lot of you have posted about it in facebook, on blogs, and even emailed your friends. I'm just writing to say thank you! We appreciate it so much! I have been blessed with such a loving and supportive family.

If you haven't heard.... Last month Rachel entered me in a contest for free lasik from Hoopes Vision. There were over 100 entries and we found out today that I am 1 of 6 FINALISTs!! Whoot Whoot! The winner gets free lasik valued at $5,000.00 so we really want to win. So anyways, it would be great if you could go vote for us.

Here's the details.

    * Go to http://www.hoopesvision.com/contest/finalists.html (our video is in the Humorous Category and it shows a crayon picture of me in my blue striped pajamas... Emma drew it:)

    * To Vote you go to the blue and white banner at the top of the page that says, "Vote for your Favorite Finalist"

    * You have to vote for one video in each category (I just picked random videos in the other two categories, they don't compete against us so it doesn't matter)
    * Our video is under the humorous category and it's called My Dad's Eyes!
    * You can vote once a day (That would be awesome if you could do this, but even one or two votes would be great!)
    * Contest closes November 28th at midnight

Rachel's brother also started a   blog - http://goodreadsforgooddeeds.blogspot.com/ . He started this blog to help encourage people come get a   "good read" and then do a "good deed" (by voting for my video).

Again, thank you everyone for voting! (remember you can vote everyday!)

Thanks,

Ryan

Fun Halloween pictures!

I don't dress up for Halloween very often, but this year I was invited to a party and I found a creative idea online so I decided to make it.

I'm a box of tissue.  That Rubix cube is my friend Libby.

The party was at my friend Laura's house and she had some fun minute to win it games prepared.  We had a good time.  Here are some of the other people at the party.

Kacee was a bunch of grapes and Kyle was a hell's angel

I don't know the first guy very well but the "Slim Jim" is my friend Jason.  He is so funny!  (He has been featured on this blog before)  It just seemed like a perfect costume for him.

Then of course I couldn't leave out pictures of some of my cute nieces and nephews.

You can hardly see Bret, he was a ninja.  Marshal was a soccer player and Danny a skeleton.

I guess my Brother and his wife went to a party Friday and Saturday so they dressed Ellie up in two different costumes.  She looks adorable in both.

She is kind of pulling a funny face but this was the best picture of her sleeping beauty dress.

Crazy September

September was such a busy month!  Mostly good stuff, thank goodness.
-Found out I have a good judgment when picking a horse to bet on at the horse races.  I won 4 out of 6.  (Friendly betting with my friends. A dollar a race.)  I walked away with 11 more dollars than I came with! (Iron County Fair)

This is one of my winning picks!

 -Went to Time Out for Women with my sister and her friend K-Lee in Logan.  We had a great time and it was a great way to refresh! And got to see Ellie on the way home.

-Found out the salon I have been working at for the last three and a half years was going out of business.  Had two and a half weeks notice.  I had actually been expecting it.
-Found a brand new salon that would be opening right when we needed it too.  The new owner hired all of us from the old salon so we are all still working together! (pictures to come, it is really cute!)

-Skyfest was practically in my front yard!  I loved it!

 -Went to the Demolition Derby in Orderville, always a good time!

 -My brother and his family moving here.  So I got to meet my newest niece.  She's a red head and so very precious!

-Attended a fundraiser in my home town for my Uncle who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Makes me grateful for the small town I come from when you see everyone banned together like that!
-My Mom and Step-dad left on their mission to Nauvoo.  I am very excited for them but know I am going to miss them a lot.

You don't have to wait for the mail anymore. My Mom picture texted this to me. :)

-Nephew that just moved here's 5th birthday.

-On the very last day of September I packed up my stuff from the old salon into my car.  I was unemployed for the next four days.  The new place didn't open until October 5th.  It was kind of weird to not have a place to go work even if I wanted to.  Thank goodness it was only four days.
My four days of unemployment consisted of sleeping in, lunch with a friend, cutting hair in my bathroom, breakfast with a friend, going to Tuachan (which was rained out), driving to Provo and back in a day to see my Mom and Neal before they left the MTC, catching up on some TV shows, attending a piano concert, and then telling the boy that took me to the piano concert we would only ever be friends. Oops, think I made him mad!
Yep, it has been a busy month and a half.  I didn't even include the bridal shower and wedding of a former roommate/good friend.  Hopefully life will slow down a little.