Robyn and Joe's Wedding . . . One for the Books

I haven't seen it yet, but evidently some of the pictures of Robyn's wedding reception made it into Aunt Jeri and her daughter Amy's new book. Several months ago, Jeri called and asked me if we had any pictures I could send her from Robyn and Joe's reception that she could use in her book. She was hoping we had some showing how we had decorated. I looked through all the pictures I had and was a little disappointed that we didn't really have any showing how pretty it was. So I sent her what I had and then forgot about it thinking none of them would work. Well....evidently a few of them did work. In an e-mail from Jeri she said that Robyn's wedding pictures made it when even her own daughter and her sister-in-law's daughter's pictures didn't. So.....surprise.....Robyn and Joe's reception can now be called "one for the books"!

Back to Parking in the South 40

Which car will it be..... After sitting behind the wheel of the Nismo 350 Z,

and checking out the new GTR, which is a handbuilt, race prepared/street legal car of which only 2500 will be made for sale in the U.S....

We drove home a new Altima. You'd think we'd at least have gotten a different color so we'd look like we're driving a new car. I think red was our second choice. Oh well.....I'm not complaining. It's new, it smells new, I don't have to dig for my keys because it's keyless, it has a navi so I won't get lost, the seat warmers work great, and, best of all, there are no annoying dings in any of the doors. Therefore, I will be parking in the south 40 for a while. Oh, and just so you know....it has already been to the carwash and rained on the next day.

Our Crazy Christmas

Sorry I've been missing in action for the last week or two. Between jet lag and a ruptured disc in my back, I've been absent in more ways than one. The drugs are great, but leave me without much of a brain. Bob is concerned that his wife will soon be on her way to rehab. Move over Brittany!

We left Nashville on December 18th and flew to Salt Lake City where we spent a few days at Robyn and Joe's house. This picture shows little Parker with a few of his "favorites". He has become attached to his Elmo slippers, his Thomas the Train pj top, and his sippy cup. We just happened to catch a picture of him with all of them. Our few days in Salt Lake City went by way too fast. It was fun to see all the snow and experience that wonderful "White Christmas" feeling. It's been a long time since we've seen real snow. We don't get real snow here in Nashville. A weather reporter described the man made snow in the mountains like skiing on a snow cone. A few days in Salt Lake City, and we were in the air again bound for sunny San Diego for Christmas. We hated to leave our Salt Lake kids behind, but knew they had a great Christmas planned with Joe's family. They are blessed to have lots of family close by.

We arrived in San Diego to wonderful sunny weather. We took a drive up the 5 Freeway and took in the sights and sounds of the California we have missed so much. Yes...this is what Christmas is supposed to look like...

and sound like! Bob found K-earth 101 oldies on the FM dial. He was in heaven!

Now this is the crazy part. Do we actually miss this? It's crazy when you feel at home on a freeway that looks like this!

One of the highlights of our San Diego trip was taking the family to the Del Mar racetrack to see the lights. Yes it is California....and they do charge you to drive through with the other hundreds of people to see these lights, but it was fun. Little Blake gave us a scare when he grabbed the steaming hot chocolate out of his mom's hands and took a sip. He was so shocked by the experience that he actually threw up into a grocery bag we had in the car. He recovered faster than the rest of us did. Note to self...hot chocolate should not be so hot next time. We stuck the bag on top of the car and continued our slow drive to the beginning of the light show. When asked what we had on top of the car, Devon just told the guy it was some garbage. He took it off the top of the car and threw it away for us. I wonder what he would have thought if he had know what it actually was!

We had a very cooperative angel and two reluctant shepherds, but were able to catch this cute picture of them on Christmas Eve. They were so excited and cute to watch as they acted out the nativity story for us. Of course, the baby Jesus in the basket of straw was emptied a few times, but we all loved watching them.

Bob decided he wanted to be in charge of the food for our Christmas Eve dinner this year and cook his very first beef tenderloin. His good friend Gary gave him instructions on how to prepare the meat and cook it. Devon was a bit heartsick when he saw that part of the preparation included three kinds of mustard, but he even loved the result. Way to go Bob! We think you've just worked yourself into a new tradition!

Of course, after the traditional picture on the staircase before the kids were able to look at what Santa brought, we had our Christmas morning breakfast.

There's nothing like a warm December day at the beach! Isn't this how Christmas is supposed to feel? I think Michael would have liked to stay longer and bask in the warm California sun, but Christmas night found us back in the airport heading for Salt Lake.

The next night (Dec. 26) we opened gifts and celebrated with Robyn and Joe. Parker came down with the flu and wasn't feeling very well for our last leg of our trip, but he was still excited about everything that was going on around him.

We had dinner with Bob's family and were able to catch up on nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters. There's never enough time to do all we would like to do, but thanks to a devoted family, they always make time for us. Thank you for taking the time to get together with us.

We received news that my cousin Kathi passed away on December 23rd and were glad we were able to attend her funeral on the 27th of December. So young, so soon....she will be so missed!

Needless to say, this was a crazy Christmas! Six airplanes, packing, driving, shopping, wrapping, stressing, worrying, laughing, hugging, celebrating, cooking, cleaning, kisses, and lots of tears. Such joy in the happy moments and such sorrow in the sad. We saw it all this Christmas!

Newscast Follow Up

By popular demand here is the link to the newscast.

http://www.wkrn.com/nashville/news/mitt-romney-addresses-mormon-faith/131837.htm#top

Clicking on the link or copying and pasting it into your web browser should take you to the newscast.

On the News

Mitt Romney's speech on December 6th created quite a stir here in Nashville. Bob received an e-mail saying that channel 2 wanted to interview a Church representative and get their reaction to the speech. Well...guess who ended up being that representative? His twenty minute interview ended up being about one minute. He and a professor from Vanderbilt were interviewed not only about the speech, but about a study that has recently been done regarding discrimination against Mormons. The results of the study show that Mormons are discriminated against. (Gee are you surprised?) The interview actually went very well, but the reporter used only a small portion of what was said. When asked if there was prejudice against Mormons, Bob hesitated for a moment and then answered, "Yes, there is, but as people get to know us, they find out we're no different than anyone else." Yes...people actually do find out that we are pretty decent people. Why do we have to keep proving ourselves? Can the American people actually look beyond a person's race or religion, or is bigotry alive and well in this the United States of America? It sure makes you think.

Christmas tag

This Christmas tag asked 25 questions for the 25 days of December. Since my house is less than half decorated, the baking is less than half done, the lights on the Christmas tree only half light up, and we will be spending Christmas day split half in Utah and half in San Diego...I feel it appropriate that I halfway answer all these questions. Here goes:

1. Do you like egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate! (that one was easy)
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just leave them under the tree? It depends on whether or not the kids he is leaving them for would snoop....I think he wraps them.
3. Do you hang mistletoe? No, never have....that would take too much planning.
4. When do you decorate? We'll just skip this question this year. We'll let you know when it happens.
5. What is your favorite holiday dish? My family would say it's the prime rib we had two years in a row that they say is now a tradition. (Good try kids) It was good though!
6. My favorite holiday memory...There are too many to name a favorite. I do remember being VERY excited to have Santa deliver a new puppy to our house. I couldn't wait to see our kids reactions!
7. When did I find out the truth about Santa? What in the world does this question mean...you guys know the rules. You gotta believe!
8. Do we open a gift on Christmas Eve? Always...new pajamas!
9. Real or fake tree? Always real until last year. The lights don't work on the top of the tree so we've been trying to get them to work. Thus, no decorations are on it yet. (stupid fake tree!)
10. What tops your tree? An angel made by Miss Shauna at Monroe Elementary school. She gave it to us before we moved from Utah to California and told me that when I look at it I should remember that I have angel children. I should keep it up all year!
11. Do you enjoy giving or receiving? I enjoy giving (of course)!
12. I'll try to combine all the remaining questions in this last answer.

I've gone back and forth with the colored or white light thing. I used to really like different colors on the Christmas tree...now I like white and different colored ornaments. I have always loved the snow. I probably fantasize about it since I haven't lived in it for so many years. If I lived in it, I'd probably fantasize about living somewhere that it didn't snow. Go figure! I love all Christmas music except the one about the little boy trying to buy shoes for his mother because she is about to die. I seriously have to turn the station when that song comes on. Also, the song we used to make fun of that talks about giving your heart to "someone special" has really grown on me! I do NOT like candy canes. I don't think I've ever just eaten one by itself. I would love to be able to shop on line, but have a hard time buying something I haven't touched. Our Christmas morning tradition has been Christmas breakfast for as long as I can remember. I wonder if we'll ever change the menu. (Grandma Johnson's Christmas casserole, hot chocolate, and Carma's bran muffins.....yummmm!) As for the Christmas card...we started doing one of those Christmas newsletters many years ago...it kindof tops off our year. Many people dislike getting them, but we really do read each and every one we get. Maybe we appreciate them a little more because most of the one's we get are from friends and family we don't live near anymore.

So I guess I'd better be off to finishing my half done list of things to do. If I don't get busy, none of you will receive our much anticipated newsletter. Now wouldn't that be tragic?! If anyone is interested....next year my shopping will be done by July 1st, and the Christmas lights are going up on the house the day after Halloween, right after I take down our wonderful Halloween display!

Thanks for Giving

We found ourselves in the air with the millions of others who decided to travel this Thanksgiving. Comforted by the fact that the airlines were going to be on their best behavior due to the fact that they would be under the public microscope over the holiday week, and the knowledge that military airspace had been opened up to help expedite air travel, we were pretty confident our trip would be uneventful. Upon boarding our plane for our connecting flight in Dallas, we were notified there had been a power outage that had shut down the air traffic control system in the Dallas Fort Worth airport. Suddenly our hopes were dashed and we pictured ourselves standing in long lines at our next airport begging for a seat on the next flight to our destination. We sat in the plane at the gate in Nashville for about an hour before taking off. Lucky for us, the airlines were on their best behavior and were really working to make up the difference. Our connecting flight wasn't delayed at all and we were able to get off one plane and on the other one really fast. Of course, the Dallas airport is HUGE so when we say really fast that actually means...getting off your plane....finding a bathroom...walking, walking, and walking....escalators up and down....being happy to see that they have a monorail system....getting on the monorail....being amazed at how large the airport is....getting off....walking, walking, and walking....escalators up and down....finding your gate....seeing that your flight is already boarding....wondering if you have time to find something to eat, because they don't give you anything to eat on these flights anymore (not even peanuts)....ordering a smoothie (which seems to take the girl FOREVER to make)....knowing that your husband has now missed his special "platinum" boarding privileges which allows him to board with group 1....secretly laughing to yourself because you have been assigned to group 6 and he'll have to board with the rest of the "nobodies" (actually, he makes me board with him and I always feel like I'm cutting in line or something)....and then finally....boarding the plane....finding overhead storage, a blanket off of someone else's seat (those are limited too, you know).... sitting down knowing you can now relax and maybe go to sleep....discovering that your seat doesn't recline because you are in the emergency row's window seat which you find out was booked intentionally to give your husband more leg room....dealing with this small disappointment and suddenly realizing you are now in a position of responsibility....half listening to the flight attendant's schpiel....hoping you won't need to know how to rip the door off and send people sliding down the wing of the plane.... (Bob asked the flight attendant if he should practice opening the door. She said no, that was all right) assuring yourself that everything will be ok....buckling up....looking out the window and bidding farewell to the flattest land you have ever seen....and then taking off! Whew!

We were off and geared up for a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We loved every minute of our time together. Our San Diego kids drove up, our BYU boy made it, and our Utah kids were most hospitable and let us all have a huge sleepover at their house for a week! It was a week full of memories, so I've picked my top ten memories of our week together:

• 10. Movies and Oprah's Favorite Things on the new plasma tv.
• 9. Dinner at Aunt Carma's and seeing Uncle Ken who just celebrated his 90th birthday.
• 8. Robyn and Joe running in a 4 mile turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning.
• 7. Devon's lifelong dream of rock hunting fulfilled.
• 6. Hugs and kisses from cute grandkids.
• 5. Cafe Rio.
• 4. Blake giving Michael the "what for" in baby talk.
• 3. Michael's key lime pie.
• 2. Parker getting sick and Kimberly and Devon coming to the rescue saying they are pros at this kind of stuff.
• 1. Joe and the Big Green Egg! It took a little longer...but well worth the wait!

Thanks for such a wonderful Thanksgiving to remember. I love you all!

Tagged...Six unknown facts about me...

I was doing a little blog browsing today and saw I had been tagged by my sweet friend Ansku to share six unknown facts about me. So here we go:

• In the 8th grade (just a few years ago) I helped spearhead a little rebellion at good old Northwest Junior High School. We tried to get as many girls as possible to join us in a demonstration against the establishment and their strict dress standards, which we felt were unconstitutional. Word spread and I believe there were about 200 girls who showed up to school wearing pants. We entered our first period classes and immediately heard over the intercom that every girl wearing pants was to report to the auditorium immediately. Of course, there were those who brought skirts just in case. But those of us who were determined to fight for our cause left our pants on and headed for the auditorium. We made the ten o'clock news that night and were all suspended from school for the day. Then came the hard part...how to tell our parents! Such a rebel.
• I LOVE green olives! I was at Costco the other day and saw a woman buying two big jars of them. My mouth literally watered looking at them. I don't buy them, however, because I would end up eating all of them myself.
• My sisters and I used to sing together. We even took voice and choreography lessons from a lady in Murray Utah for a time. We had hopes of making it big someday. Our dad knew someone that knew someone that was going to tell someone about us and get us our break so we could sing at Disneyland and then my sister decided she wanted to get married instead. Just think what may have possibly, if our dad really did know someone that knew someone that could refer us to someone else, happened.
• I was the fastest runner in the 5th grade!
• My mom used Henna on my hair when I was in grade school and turned me into a redhead for several weeks.
• I really like country music and had a thing for Toby Keith for a while. My husband even downloaded "Whiskey for my Men, Beer for my Horses" as his ringtone for me. That is, until he was interviewing a bishop one night and I called him.

So there you go....betcha didn't know that! If you're reading this...consider yourself tagged.

That Ain't No Utah Deer

A few days ago me and Diane were getting ready to eat our morning fruit smoothie and settle in for our morning scripture study when Diane looked into the back yard and saw one of only two bucks we've seen in our yard this past year. I realize to you Utah guys this isn't exactly a trophy buck. I'm sure some rabid hunter here in Tennessee would love to have this baby hanging in his garage. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't mind if he were hanging in my garage. If he were hanging in my garage what would I do with him? I would have to clean it, skin it, find someone to cut it up, then put it in the freezer and eat the poor thing. I guess I'm glad I'm not the rabid hunter I once was. Off to the right of the deer is the vicious slope that gave me "one heck of a hematoma" on my left leg. I knew the deer could handle the slope so I didn't try to warn him. For now we'll just enjoy watching them when they come into the backyard.

On reflection, I still have the antler's from the last buck I shot while living in Utah. That three point was larger than this little feller. With all the green shrubbery here to munch on you would think the deer would grow larger than they do. I am seeing the difference between the mule deer in Utah and the white tail deer here. One thing about deer here, there are a lot of them. Hunter's who are really serious about hunting can take multiple deer throughout the season. Tonight we were on our way to do a few errands and we saw what we call the mythical albino deer. We have heard people talk about albino deer since moving to Tennessee. We thought it was somewhat of a fairy tale. Tonight we can tell it is true. We saw with our own eyes an albino deer. No we weren't stunned, but excited to see a part of nature one rarely sees. The fur on this doe was not white, white but somewhat a creme color. It was very pretty to see. We were grateful the car ahead of us didn't hit it when it ran across the road.

We do enjoy seeing the various wild life that frequents our backyard and the surrounding neighborhood. We see squirrels, occasionally wild turkey, frogs, lizards, spiders larger than any spider I've seen in my life prior to moving to Tennessee, cardinals, blue jays, buzzards eating road kill, and more birds than I could possible name. Some animals are a little more adventurous than others. The squirrels seem to come out of nowhere on the roads around here. So now I feel bad about the dumb squirrel that ran out in front of my car one early Sunday morning. They may be fast but they can't quite outrun the tires of the car doing 40 mph.

Occasionally we hear coyote howling at night when we're outside. They sound like a rather large pack when you hear them howling.

I hope that squirrel forgives me for ending his life earlier than it should have.

Fortunately for me, he was no where near the size of the giant opossum Diane collided with shortly after moving here. We've returned to the scene of the crime each time someone comes to visit. Fortunately there are no such things as opossum ghosts or this one would be roaming the road looking for the car that ended his/her life.

Utah visits Nashville

A few pictures from our week together

Nothing can keep this kid out. He discovered how to open the doors and was very proud of his discovery.
Yes...it's never too early to expose your children to the finer things in life. Grandpa will be sure that "Nissan" is one of his first words.
Elmo's World...Parker would ask for it as soon as he got up in the morning. We tried hiding the case from him, but he remembered it. We soon figured out that we couldn't beat it, so we just joined in.
Don't let this happy face fool you. He was fine for the time he was in the stroller, but as soon as he was out of it, he wanted to push it. The mistake was actually letting him push it. For one thing, he couldn't see where the heck he was going, and he refused to push it where you wanted it to go, and he did NOT want any help. One finger of yours on the stroller and all was lost! The stroller became a four letter word. We resorted to hiding it from his sight and spelling it when we needed to get it out of the trunk.

Traveling with a Toddler

After a grueling day in an airplane with a 17 month old, Robyn looked relieved to finally be in Nashville. I worried about her all day because I knew her trip had gotten off to a rough start. She had called me, in tears, from the Salt Lake Airport letting me know (which was a great relief because I thought something terrible had happened) that she had forgotten the carseat and that there was no way on earth she was going to go back through security to have Joe bring it to her. My girls have a way of scaring me to death when they call in hysterics. So, much to my relief, I was in need of a carseat...easy fix. Everyone arrived safe and sound. Every piece of luggage was accounted for (in our family, that's huge). And...as Robyn mentioned in her blog, I did get up the courage to drive by myself to pick her up. I know it's not a big deal for most of you....but it seems to be a huge deal for me. I can't seem to get over the anxiety of being in a new place and not knowing my way around. Bob keeps reminding me that I have a navigation system and a cell phone. What the heck more can he do for me?!

A List of things I learned

• Elmo's World is a great little movie...I think I have it memorized.
• The song sung to the tune of jingle bells has fairly easy lyrics...."friends"...that's it.
• Naptime is very important.
• Sometimes all you need is a power nap to get you through the day.
• "Uppa" means "I want you to pick me up".
• "damma" means "down"
• It makes your grandpa very happy when you shout out "Bapa" from the back of the chapel in church and point to him on the stand repeatedly throughout the meeting.
• "ooooeeee" means "movie" in the car....doesn't everyone play movies in their cars??
• Teletubbies isn't nearly as disgusting when you watch it with a 17 month old.
• It's more fun to stay outside in the garden at the Carnton mansion and throw rocks than to be inside with all those adults who want to hear a boring tour guide.
• That guy at the Japanese Steak House is really scary with those knives he throws around and the big fire he makes on his grill.
• Dinner is to be eaten alternating one bite in the mouth and one on the floor.
• Waffles are great food to feed a toddler while pushing them in a stroller.
• Strollers should be hidden and not talked about.
• The first thing Parker learns to spell will probably be S.T.R.O.L.L.E.R.
• It's fun to call out "JOE" from the bottom of the stairs when you know he's upstairs.
• Joe is much easier to say than "daddy".
• It's great to snuggle with Parker right after he wakes up in the morning.
• Why rent a movie for $1 when you can buy it at Wal Mart for $20, and then you find four more movies on sale for $5 and end up spending $40. Makes sense to me!

It seems like we were just getting the hang of things and our time together was over. We drove them to the airport and said goodbye. We watched them as they breezed through security...no drama this time. Then we gave our last wave, wiped away our tears, and walked silently back to our car with the now empty carseat in the back. This, my friends, is what life is made of. We are so blessed!