Appetizer

Name something you would categorize as weird.~ Gina

Soup

What color was the last piece of food you ate?~ um, eggroll color.

Salad

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy being alone?~8

Main Course

Fill in the blank: I will _________ vote for ___________ in _______.~ I will never vote for pink elephants in underpants.

Dessert

Describe your sleeping habits.~ Late to bed sleep as long as I can. Once I'm out, I'm dead, I don't hear anything until morning.

{For the Record}

For those of you who have been watching the news and may have wondered....

Some Mormon women sing...


Some Mormon women dance...



Some Mormon women write scary stories...



Some Mormon women have lots of money and really great hair...



I know hundreds of Mormon women.

They do all kinds of different things and live all different kinds of lives.



This woman served as a leader in the Mormon church. She recently spoke to teenage girls worldwide. She encouraged them to stand up to peer pressure, strengthen their families and serve others. (Click here for more.)


None of the Mormon women I know look like this...

None of them are marrying off their teenage daughters and-- although some may joke about wanting a sister-wife (preferably one who is really fat & ugly, does bathrooms and changes diapers)--none of them really want to share their husband with anyone.

Furthermore...

Some Mormon guys can sing...

Some Mormon guys can throw a ball...

Some Mormon guys yell at the ball...



Some Mormon guys make scary movies...




Some Mormon guys have a lot of money and really great hair...

Some Mormon guys are scientists...

(Henry Eyring (colleague of Albert Einstein) He pioneered the application of quantum mechanics to chemistry. He also was awarded the National medal of Science for devolving the Absolute Rate Theory of chemical reactions. He was elected president of the American Chemical Society in 1963 and of the Association for the Advancement of Science in 1965.)

I know hundreds of Mormon guys. They do all kinds of different things and live all kinds of different lives.

This is one of the leaders of the Mormon church. Last Sunday he spoke about honoring women, especially mothers, and gave advice to husbands and children about how to treat the women in their lives. (For the whole story, click here.)

None of the Mormon men I know look like this...

The Mormon men I know are honest and hard-working. They don't cheat, smoke, drink or gamble.

And TRUST ME....the last thing any of them want is another wife.

If you'd like to know more about the LDS church please click here.

*This was received in an email and I thought that it made a point that I wanted to share so well. Wish I knew the origins of it so I could give credit where credit is due. I did add a couple of people and touches to it, because I felt it was missing something.

Something that could have been said today...

"Consider these words written by Abraham Lincoln as part of a resolution in 1863: 'We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth, and power as no other Nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us.
"'It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our . . .sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.'
(John Wesley Hill,Abraham Lincoln, Man of God, 4th ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, p.391.)"
(Marion G. Romney, "Gratitude and Thanksgiving," Ensign, Nov. 1982, 50)

.... amazing how some things never change.

Meme

I was just thinking the other night that nobody's passed around a good meme lately, then I saw this one at Kathleen's and decided to play along.
Here's my shot at it.

1) What was the first music album you ever bought with your own money? I don't even remember... however, I do remember my brother Dan won a Phill Collins record, and I tried my best to get it out of his hands. I'm almost thinking it was a Judds tape.


2) If you were a flavor of ice cream, what would it be, and why? Bubblegum. Because it's my favorite ice cream flavor (minus the chicklets). It's pink and fun and reminds me of good times.


3) What is your favorite item of clothing? My monkey socks. They are like these, only with a sock monkey and a banana.


4) When it comes to other people’s personal grooming, what is your biggest pet peeve? B/O. Last week I actually FELL OFF a treadmill because a guy next to me smelled so bad! Hahaha. I am not kidding.



5) Which character on Sesame Street embodies your personality the most? Prairie Dawn, she's sweet and mothering and smart and she sings a good song :)

I tag Gina, Michelle and Misty Dawn

Ew! Ew! Ew!

A couple of weeks ago I took my laptop in for some work on a usb port. Well, the Geek Squad ended up replacing the motherboard and the hard drive. So when I worked on those pictures of the get together I forgot that I hadn't re-calibrated my screen yet! EW! I just saw them yesterday on my desk top. Uh, wow.... all I can say is ... wow and ew.

Hey Brian Ehrler from New York

Ok, so tonight in my email is a message that was left on my blog under the story about the dog poop brownies. Now I really hate it when people "hit and run" a blog post, so I'm going to stop the trolley and post about it.
Brian apparently found me doing a Google about dog poop brownies... odd thing to search for Brian... but I suppose it was an odd thing for me to write about as well.
So Brian's comment was this, "What a great story... too bad your choice in blog music does not match your written beliefs. "
Ok. Hmmmm.... I'm a little confused by this comment. Perhaps I have been careless in my song choices and have chosen a song that has a hidden meaning I don't know about... or maybe some lyrics I haven't combed over.... or maybe I am right, it's hard to avoid dog poop brownies.
If anyone would care to point out the song that is not up to my standards I would love to have you point it out so that I may chose to remove it. Nothing drives me more nuts than a liberal hypocrite, so I certainly don't want to be one.
And Brian if you ever come back I'd like to know which song you felt contained dog poop.

Hallelujah!

I can eat again!
I guess it was dry socket. You don't know how good I feel today!

My week of h-e-double hockey sticks

Last Monday
I had roots from a broken tooth removed. Wednesday I had a crown on a cracked tooth and a broken filling replaced. And ALL WEEK LONG my mouth has been in so much pain. I haven't been able to sleep or eat (because of the extraction and a wound on the other side of my mouth). I'm exhausted and nutrition deprived.

Thursday
I went back to the dentist and told him how it's still in major pain. He didn't think it was a dry socket, and thought it was because of the crown throwing off the bite on the side of the extraction. He fixed the bite, but was WRONG that didn't help.

Saturday
On Saturday I met up with 9 other photographers for a get-together. They started out the day meeting up at a coffee shop in the morning. I met up with them at 10 at the library. We'd reserved a room for the day for our use. We did some introductions and critiquing work/websites for the first part of the morning. Then we got lunch and went out for some shooting/posing stuff.
I was in a lot of pain, it was cold and windy and I really just wanted to be in bed sleeping. It was so sad, because I was SOOOOOOO looking forward to getting together with them, but my mind was so fried from lack of sleep and nutrients I just couldn't get into it, or think of anything creative or fun to do. I kind of just followed the crowd and watched mostly.
I did get a shot of at least everyone there, except Christina who left before we started shooting and Daniel, and Scott. I'm not sure how I didn't get any good ones of them.
After shooting we went back to the library where we saw what people had shot. I shared a couple of techniques I use for popping eye color and for removing dark circles under the eyes.
Anyway, here's a few shots I took....

This is Julie. She is so cool. She's been the backbone of the whole GTG.




This is her friend Alissa, who has a great personality. She was fun to meet.



This is the Haraldson's, Laura and Scott. They are wedding photogs. Yin and Yang. They seem like they are having fun in life together.











This is Jenn. Her and her husband are wedding photogs as well. She is adorable and it was great to see her work.



Here is Julie shooting her



This is Joe. I didn't get to chat much with him so I don't know much about him, but I liked the work he shared with us.



Sunday
Saturday night I had made brownies for our class, one of our boys had a birthday, and I was so sad I couldn't have any. I got upset with how I didn't like how I looked in my hair had looked in the pictures people had taken of me, so I cut myself some bangs again. Now they keep poking me in the eyes because I kept them long.

This morning
I went in for an appointment I had scheduled to start work for a new bridge. I told them about all the pain I've been in and how much trouble it's caused me. I found bone in the extraction site last night. They think it's dry socket. They packed it with medicine that I have to go back and have changed every few days. They said it should take the edge off of the pain, but I don't think it has.
They also tried to convince me that the wound on my other cheek is a canker sore. I personally think they got my cheek when they were working on my teeth. But they won't admit it.

Now I sit here wondering if what I'm feeling in the hole is gauze pack or food.

Oh my gosh, I am praying that I am on the mend now.

American Idol's Smallest Fans

Ok, I think I might watch this show too much.
A couple of days ago my 3 small children were playing their own made up version of American Idol. Joshua could be heard from the other room saying, "I'm not feeling it. Sing it with more feeling".

Then yesterday Joyanna was trying to get the game going when she out of the blue announced, "I'm going to HOLLYWOOD!!! What song should I sing?"

Now tonight I heard them playing in the other room on keyboards and symbols and Jaeden says, "We need more acting...... we need more.... talent!"

I got some cute kids.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer

Name a color you find soothing~ Pink

Soup

Using 20 or less words, describe your first driving experience.~Not counting shifting the pick up for mom? I stole my parents vehicle when I didn't have a licence yet.

Salad

What material is your favorite item of clothing made out of?~I dunno, it says "organic".

Main Course

Who is a great singer or musician who, if they were to come to your town for a concert, you would spend the night outside waiting for tickets to see?~ Michael Buble

Dessert

What is the most frequent letter of the alphabet in your whole name (first, middle, maiden, last, etc.)?~ N-5 times

To join Friday's Feast click here.

I am experiencing technical difficulties....

Actually, I had a tooth removed on Monday. On Wednesday I had a filling replaced and a crown put on a tooth that had cracked from the pressure of my clenching. My mouth became out of allignment, and because of my clenching, my jaw is enormously sore and it makes me feel anti-social and basically I just want to sit on my couch and wimper.
Something about any part of my head hurting makes me feel like I need to be locked in a padded room until it's done. It just takes over everything. How I feel. How I cope. How I mother. And yes, even how I blog.
I hope to be back to normal soon... however on Monday I start work on a new bridge, so I hope that won't leave me in pain more, otherwise it's going to be a couple of weeks before you see me here again.
Until then, enjoy this little majic show...

Free Toys!

Who can resist signing up for a contest for free toys? Not me, that's who! I would love to win this Lego set for my boys. Both the 15 and the 6 year old would love to play with that.
5 minutes for Mom is having a great 2 week giveaway for kids of all ages. Go see if there's anything you'd like to win!

I am so blessed

I just have to say tonight how blessed I feel to have the Church of Jesus Christ in my life. I'm so thankful to know how Heavenly Father really is, and how He really feels about His children here on earth, whether they know the Gospel or not. What an amazing blessing it is to be able to kneel on my knees and ask Him myself to let me know how He feels about me and to have the amazing answer swell within my heart. He is so loving, so merciful, so wise, so perfect. He knows how to love perfectly. I am so thankful for that.

YAY

My visit went really well, and other than the dentist's limp handshake, I really liked him, he was very nice. I also like his prices. I start on next Monday with the plan they put together for me. I hope to have it all done by June, I'm sure they can have it done before then, but the last little bit will have to wait until I have been paid for a wedding I'm shooting in June.

The hygienist was super nice and chatty, I loved that. She also kept commenting on how pretty my teeth were, which made me feel good. She asked me if I've had braces and I've been asked that before, nice to say I haven't, I was lucky in that department. She also kept chatting with me about how I quit smoking in 1999. I told her about using the patch, but somehow felt uncomfortable about telling her that that was the first time I'd asked the Lord to help me with it, when I was going back to activity in the church. But I just want to say now, that I never would have been able to quit if I hadn't involved the Lord in it.

The total cost is about what I was expecting, which is nice. No shockers there. But it was a shocker to find out that a tooth one dentist claimed was cracked is in fact not cracked and only has a shallow filling that has broken. Only one new cavity in the last 4 years. My gums are tight and look great, and I didn't have a lot of plaque. I'm a good brusher, however I don't floss very well. She was hoping that my gums would be in worse shape so she could push flossing on me, but she said that I prolly wouldn't listen since they were doing so good, hahaha.

Monday I begin my treatment with the removal of some roots of a tooth that lost it's crown a couple of weeks ago.

Glad it's done!

I stepped out on a limb tonight and taught a short class about making better pictures, at tonight's Enrichment class. Man! I was so nervous! I felt like I was stumbling in my talking and thoughts until halfway through someone asked me a question and then I relaxed, it was like "Oh yeah, I know what I'm talking about, why am I relying on cards?" I wish they'd asked me a question sooner! Ha!

American Idol
Ok, I have to complain about Jason Castro's "Over the Rainbow" It first sounded like he was trying to do IZ's rendition of it, and then changed it. I didn't like it. Nobody can hold a candle to IZ. But America is gullible and will think it's fantastic because Simon said it was. Normally I like Simon and agree with him on most all his opinions about performances, but not this time.

ETA: Thanks Banana! I accidentally called Jason "David", whoops!