Tagged

Our good friend Marla decided that we should be tagged/tasked with the following items. Since Diane is the key blogger and she is in Salt Lake with Robyn and Avery, she said I should respond to Marla's tag. A little background on Marla. She was one of my young single adults when I was bishop. She and I became good friends. We still e-mail each other so we can stay in touch and Marla can let us know what is going on in her life. Marla reminds us of Hilary Swank with her mannerisms and how she holds herself. We decided this after Diane took me to see PS: I Love You. During the movie I kept trying to think who Hilary Swank reminded me of. It was Marla.

Rules: Answer each question about yourself, then tag 5 people by posting their names and leaving them a comment on their blog.

10 Years Ago: Ten years ago we lived in the great town of Placentia, Orange County, California. Someone asks us where Placentia is and I tell them it was near Disneyland. We always reflect on how we could hear the fireworks every night in the summer between 9:30 and 9:35 p.m. It was great. Placentia is a great place to raise a family. The Placentia Stake has so many good people. On May 3, 1998 I replaced my good friend Bob Murdock as bishop of the Placentia 1st Ward. I had the blessing of being his counselor and executive secretary for a good part of his service. I learned a lot from Bishop Murdock. Robyn graduated from high school in 1998. She started her BYU career in the summer. Michael was all of 13 years old. I had the opportunity to attend scout camp with him. I loved it. The Laurel class came over and planted our front flower bed. I cried when I saw what they did. A few of those young women who served us I later had the opportunity to send on missions.

Things On My To Do List Tomorrow: Go back to work. I’ve been home sick for two days and it has been miserable. The doctor said I don’t have the flu but I do have a nasty cough and feel kind of crummy. Tomorrow night I plan on being in the temple. Diane has been two times this month and I haven’t been once yet. Diane is in Salt Lake taking care of Robyn so I thought that would be a good way for me to spend a Friday night without my wife. It doesn’t get much more exciting than that around here.

Snacks I enjoy: Seeing as I love food and love to eat, this is a tough one. My morning snack at work is the Trail Mix bars you get at the grocery store or Costco. Since we don’t have a snack machine at work I have to bring in my own. When someone brings in the Krispy Kreme’s I have to help myself to one of those. One time I completed a fully scientific evaluation and study of Krispy Kreme donuts. I wanted to know which were eaten first, the standard glaze or the chocolate glaze. I was certain it would be the chocolate, at least that was my theory. On two occasions I purchased two dozen glazed and two dozen chocolate the individuals I work with. The study was clearly the glazed donuts. The two dozen glazed were eaten at about a two to one ratio. Diane and I like to also eat the raw almonds. They are a great snack.

What would I do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: I would pay off my kids houses. Somehow we would figure out a business we could get into where we could all work together and sustain us. Diane and I would plan out the year for trips we would like to take. We would have to have a house here in Tennessee, one in Salt Lake, and one in California.

3 Of My Bad Habits: Pepsi says it all. I do settle for Coke when Pepsi isn’t available. I love chips and salsa at the Mexican restaurant. I did say the “D” word last summer when I slipped mowing my lawn and landed on my leg.

5 places I have lived: I’ve only lived in four places. Salt Lake City, West Valley City, Utah, Placentia, CA, and Brentwood, TN.

Jobs that I have had: My first job, besides mowing my parents lawn, was at Fred’s Burger Chalet. I was the pearl diver or dishwasher as most people call it. By the time I left I was the night manager making a whopping $1.75 an hour. Considering I started at $1.20 an hour I thought I was really making the big bucks. After that I’ve spent all my life in the automotive world. I worked at Mate’s Foreign Cars. This was a Peugeot, Citroen, Land Rover, and Alfa Romeo dealer. I then worked at Randy’s Datsun which became Clark Datsun in North Salt Lake. Eventually Bob Clark sold the franchise to Jerry Seiner. I was the first Nissan Master Technician in the state of Utah. I then had an opportunity to work for Nissan North America on their technical hot line. Moving to Southern California was a blessing beyond measure. You could say I’ve had the training manuals I’ve written published throughout the world.

Things most people don’t know about me: My life is pretty much an open book. Diane and I agree that we do most things the hard way. For instance, going to the University of Phoenix was definitely NOT the easy thing to do, but somehow we got through and lived to tell about it.

Seeing as I don't blog a lot I have to go on Diane's list of people to tag. Of course Kimberly, Robyn, Michael, Tina, and Jeremy Murdock should tell us a little about themselves. As a matter of fact, I think Vivian should also pass on a few words of wisdom.

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.
Diane,
ILYSM

Mild Temperatures/Mean Tornadoes

When the outside temperature is in the high 70's in the month of February, and there is a cold front moving your way......watch out! When those two conditions mix with each other the result can be deadly! Yesterday they did, and it was! Although the sirens went off several times last night, the tornadoes passed by us without leaving destruction in our neighborhood.

This was my choice....either I watch Fox News for the election results or I watch "Stormtracker" as tornadoes were being tracked coming in our direction. It was actually a hard choice at first, but as the weather became more severe, the tornado watch won. I was glued to the television wondering if those big red cells were actually headed our way. At about 8 p.m. the sirens started blaring and the news people began giving warnings to everyone from county to county to take cover. They would say to turn the volume up on your television and go to your safe place. That way you could still listen and know when all was clear in your area.

I went to sleep with the television on and the blinds open. I don't know why I thought having the blinds open would help. I just felt like I needed to see the lightning before I heard the thunder. Our neighbor called asking if they could seek shelter in our basement, if necessary...so I also left the back door open just in case. So...with the television on, blinds open, back door unlocked, and only one eye shut...I looked over at my D.H. and wondered how in the world he could sleep through it all...but he did! At least one of us got some sleep last night.

People around here say they'd rather have tornadoes than earthquakes. As for me, the jury's still out on that one. I will say it's a good distraction on a bad election day.

All kidding aside, these tornadoes left a path of destruction. Our prayers are with those who have lost their homes and their loved ones. We are counting our blessings.

The Best is Yet to Be...Happy Anniversary!

Today we have been married for 31 years....yes 31! Where has the time gone? Look at the faces of these two little kids who had no idea they were going to grow up and marry each other. Here's my anniversary wish which can be summed up in these words written by John Lennon...

Grow old along with me

The best is yet to be...

When our time has come

We will be as one

God bless our love

God bless our love

Grow old along with me
Two branches of one tree
Face the setting sun
When the day is done

God bless our love
God bless our love

Spending our lives together
Man and wife together

World without end

World without end

Grow old along with me

Whatever fate decrees

We will see it through
For our love is true

God bless our love
God bless our love

Happy 31st Anniversary!

I love you!

I didn't want Diane to have all the fun so I thought I would add my tribute to Diane.

Hi honey,
Why is it when I think about you I have to smile? I guess because you bring so much joy into my life. When looking back on time I wonder where the years have gone. Yet I so look forward to the future with you. 31 years ago 31 years seemed like a long time.

At 51, 31 years isn’t long enough. You bless my life in so many ways. You greet me at home almost every day. You feed me and keep me going. You look after my health as much as I let you.

You continue being my best friend who I share everything with. You are the joy of my life who make every minute worth living. We don’t know what eternity will be like, yet I know I want to be with you. Thank you for being my friend, my lover, my partner in life, the mother of my children, and the woman of my dreams. Oh how I love you. I truly do love you so much (ILYSM).

Thanks sweetie for a great 31 years and for another 31 or so together here in mortality.

As Buzz Lightyear said, “To infinity and beyond”.

Happy Anniversary sweetie
I love you beyond measure
Bob

Sensible Shoes

What do you do when the weather is 10 degrees and most of your shoes look like this? First you dig for that coupon you know you had somewhere for $10 off any pair of shoes, and head for the mall. When you arrive, you find that the store you have the coupon for is nowhere to be found. Disappointed that you can't use your very valuable coupon, but also desperate for some shoes to wear to church, you decide you are desperate enough that you will actually pay the department store price. Much to your delight, upon entering the shoe department, you see they are having a sale on shoes! After admiring all the new fashions and picturing yourself in those sexy Stilettos that will make you at least 5 inches taller, and reasoning that the extra money you spend will save you the cost of altering the pants that are too long for you....you come back to reality. The only problem now is to find something in your size. There are plenty of shoes, but each time you request to try a pair on, you are told they don't have it in your size. You get the impression that the shoe salesman thinks you should settle for one size bigger where you will have a lot more to choose from. You compromise on one pair and get it in a size 61/2 instead of a 6, and tell yourself that when you're not cold, your feet will swell and they will fit just fine.

You head home with your sensible shoes in the bag, and are happy to have found at least one pair of something other than black. Navy blue dress shoes will give you a little variety right? Sunday morning comes and you decide on the blue skirt. You wait until the last minute to put the shoes on. When you do, you notice they don't feel quite right. You wonder if your right foot is really that much bigger than your left. You look inside the right and left shoe and discover they have given you a different size for each foot. You change clothes and put on the other pair that could pass as dress shoes, only to realize that the 6 1/2 are too big and would require thick socks to make them not slip up and down like flip-flops. Finally, because you are now going to be late if you don't hurry, you slip on the flats and call it good. You head off to church in your sensible shoes. You have saved the coupon.....maybe those sexy Stilettos are still a possibility.

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!