Happy "National Lemon Cupcake Day"!

When I found out that today is "National Lemon Cupcake Day" I got so excited! I LOVE lemon cupcakes! Saturdays are the perfect day to make lemon cupcakes. Also if any of you are keeping track, today is 3rd day of Christmas. That means you don't even have to plan dinner tonight. You can have three french hens and for dessert, eat lemon cupcakes. Can a meal get any better? I submit that it cannot! I hope you all had a good week. It was a long week for me. I have been taking care of my mom who is recovering from surgery. It hasn't been bad, it just means that I don't get to take my daily nap after I get home from work each day. She can't drive yet, so I have been driving her around. On Wednesday, my day off, she had three doctors appointments, and then we finished some Christmas shopping. It was tiring day for both of us. Mom is doing great though, she just gets tired quicker than normal. I'm excited for Christmas! I can't believe how quick it is coming. For those of you from Utah, any ideas on what a family of four can do on Christmas day for fun? I guess these are all my random thoughts for now, so I will end now, and talk to you all later!

A Day to Remember

Sixty-six years ago today was a day that will live on in infamy. It was today, in the early morning hours that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor catapulting the United States into World War II. As I think about what happened today, 66 years ago, I remember again how grateful I am for those men and women who willingly sacrifice their lives in defence of freedom and liberty. Twenty-one ships in the U.S. Naval fleet were destroyed in the attack. It devastated the Navy. More than ships were lost though. The deaths reached to number 2,350 with 68 civilians. Another 1,178 were injured.

Miracles happened despite the terror and destruction. The United States banded together, and despite losses, ended the war in 3 1/2 years. I think that the real miracle is that now, 66 years later, there is no animosity between these two nations who were at war. We live peaceably with one another, and even work together.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day". The third verse says, "And in despair I hung my head, there is no peace on earth I said. For hate in strong and mocks the song of peace on earth goodwill towards men." This reminds me of the world today. There is little peace and it seems that the conflict in the Middle East will never be resolved. But the song continues in verse four by saying, "Then peels the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead nor doth He sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth goodwill toward men."

How grateful I am that God "is not dead nor doth He sleep". I see an example of this with what has happened between Japan and the United States. Who would have thought on that December morning in 1941, that Japan and the United States would become allies and friends. I am grateful for this time of year when we get to remember those who have sacrificed themselves for the freedom of others. Especially the ultimate sacrifice of the Prince of Peace. I pray that a remembrance of His birth in this season will give us all true reason to celebrate. Someday, because of Him, there will be peace on earth, and goodwill towards all men. May each of us work harder in our own lives to spread that peace and goodwill as He would do.

Wear Brown Shoes Day

It has just come to my attention, that tomorrow (December 4th) is "Wear Brown Shoes Day". I know that it is late, and I'll be headed to bed in just a minute, but I wanted to make sure that everyone out there is aware that they should wear brown shoes. Really, I almost always wear brown shoes, but tomorrow, I will specially wear them in celebration of a fabulous holiday. If you are reading this, and it is the 4th, and you are not wearing brown shoes, then I encourage you to change. Who knows, maybe your whole day will become brighter!

Sarah's Belly

My sister Sarah is pregnant with a baby girl, like I stated in my previous post. My sister-in-law Brandon said that the picture in the letter-man's jackets is the first belly picture she has seen. I decided to post a better picture of the belly. This one has Lindsey and the belly. (Sorry Sarah, but I don't know how often you read this blog, so I might just get away with you never knowing!) It was taken the day before thanksgiving. I have also included some Christmas decoration pictures for my nephew Talmage since HoneyGram and Papa (aka my Mom and Dad) don't quite have their blog up and running yet. I hope that you can all enjoy though.

Happy "Square Dance Day"!

I'm not going to write about square dancing even though it's that day; I just couldn't think of a good title. Anyway, I just thought I'd wish everyone a happy almost December. I hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving, and from what I have read, it sounds like most of you have. I travelled to Washington for the holiday. It was fabulous to be among family and trees again. I forget how brown Utah really is. I enjoyed the moisture in the air too. We had dinner at my sister Sarah's house. It was fun to watch her play hostess and she did a marvelous job. We also got up and went shopping at 3am. We actually left at 2:30 so that we could be in line at 3:00. My dad and I were in charge of the ToysRus run. We weren't very successful. The main object we were going for, the store only had four. Then I couldn't find another thing, and by the time I did, they were all gone. It was very stressful. The rest of the day, Dad and I took care of the waiting in line for everyone else and running bags out to the car. I don't get paid until the 1st, so I didn't do any shopping for the people I have to buy for. The day was fun though. The picture is of sisters (Sarah and Lindsey), niece (Sierra), and I shopping. The picture was taken at about 10am, so we had been at it for about 7 hours. It was quite a day!

Later that day we went to Sarah's ultrasound to find out her baby's gender. It's a GIRL!!! I'm so excited. I know that people were hoping for a boy, but I was secretly wanting a girl. We went baby clothes shopping that afternoon. It was fun to pick out clothes, and Big Sister Sierra became giddy as she picked out outfits. She informed her mom and dad that she would be spoiling her sister.


This other picture is a picture of my sisters, brother-in-law Brian, and I wearing our Letter-man's jackets. Really, we aren't all stuck in high school, but there is a strong cross-town rival between Puyallup High School (Brian's school), and Rogers High School (mine and all of my siblings school). Since 1983, Rogers has only beat Puyallup in the annual football game 4 times. One of those 4 times was this year. My sister Lindsey and I celebrated by showing up on Sarah and Brian's doorstep in our Letter-man's jackets singing the Roger's fight song. We had to get our picture taken while we had them out. Who knows how many more years it will be till we get to celebrate beating Puyallup again.

Well, that is the best update that I can give. I hope that you are all well and happy! And if you are in the mood, enjoy some good ol' Square Dancing!

I've Been Tagged

I was going to just ignore the whole tag thing, but decided that the sooner I did it, the sooner I would be done with it. So here goes:

1. The most aweful sound in the world to me is feet (with or without socks on) rubbing on carpet. This is worse than nails on a chalkboard for me. Even just thinking about it right now is making me cringe. It is really something that can't stand.

2. I have actually logged onto LDS singles.com before. I know, it's pathetic, but I haven't met anyone on there, and in reality, I don't think I've talked to anyone on there.

3. If there is a food that I could eat everyday and be happy, it would be nachos. Not just any nachos, although I'll take what I can get, but my favorite nachos are found in the Auburn, WA Supermall. There is a little Mexican place in the food court that has the BEST nachos I have ever had. Since moving to Utah, I have been in search of nachos that compare, and I have yet to find some.

4. During one of my summers in between semesters at BYU-I, I worked at a Pie Factory. I spent 10 hours a day watching pies go by on conveyor belts, loading dough into the machine, and pressing the dough into pans. Each night I would come, and wonder if I would ever be completely dough free again. To this day, I can't look at Pumpkin Pie without feeling a little ill.

5. I like to look through an buy really old books. I think the oldest book I have is from the 1920's. I especially like old History books because I like to see how History has changed since the books were written. It is also intriguing to me to see how the era a book is written in changes the way history is percieved. (I know, I'm a nerd)

6. My secret ambition is to someday be the First Lady. So if any of you know a single guy with political aspirations, send him my way!

So I guess I am now supposed to tag someone. The problem is that all of the people I know that have blogs have already been tagged. So I am going to tag 6 people who I think need to create blogs: Jessica, Lindsey, HoneyGram, Sarah, Jill, Sierra. So you six, create a blog, and then list 6 things about yourselves, and then tag 6 other people!

Happy National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day

Today is the one day a year set aside in honer of cleaning out your refrigerator, so slap on those rubber gloves, maybe get a nose plug and get get to work creating a leftover concoction for dinner. I made the mistake of telling my mom what today is, so now I have to add that to my list. Our refrigerator really isn't that bad though. It is funny how little we have in it with only 3 of us home. There are few nights when all of us eat together, and a lot of time we will grab a bite to eat on our way somewhere. Often Mom and Dad only go shopping for food when one of my siblings come to visit (so I'm inviting anyone who would like to come to come NOW!). Despite the lack of food in the refrigerator, that doesn't mean we don't have interesting things in there. Because we don't get in it a lot, we forget about the stuff that is in there. I looked in it today, and the weirdest/grossest/oldest thing in there is some old bagels. They've been in the back of the refrigerator for over a month, and are kind of stale. I don't know that they are necessarily bad, but I don't have the guts to eat it. So I'm curious... What is the weirdest/grossest/oldest thing you found in your refrigerator today? Think about it, let me know, and have fun cleaning!