goals

by now, I usually have tons of goals in lots of areas. this year, I haven't even thought of any. but I will. so I thought it would be fun if everyone shared one goal for the year on blog. and I'd like to hear everyone else's favorites of 2006. I will do mine tomorrow.

Best of 2006

As the end of the year has crept up on us, I have seen numerous "best of" lists. I thought I'd take this time to make my best of 2006 list - and would look to see yours as well. Also, you probably have noticed I changed my blog to the New blogger so you now have to sign in via a google account (when you sign in it will show you how) to post something. I changed the colors/layout slightly for 2007 as well. And so, my list:

Best show of 2006: Battlestar Galactica. Yes, I have blogged much about this show. 2006 brought some of the greatest episodes and worst. Worst, I think, due to the fact that they had to make double the number of shows this season which led to some drawn out episodes. But still, this show rocks. A runner up award to the Office which continues its stellar writing and acting.

Best movie of 2006: Pirates: Dead Man's Chest. What else even came out this year? Hard to remember. This movie surprised me as to how good it was. In fact, I liked it more than the original which I was also surprised to like as much as I did. I think this is a testament to Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski (Director)'s talent. I also salute the performance of Tia Dalma played by Naomie Harris. She was fantastic.

Best book I read in 2006: Ender's Game. Yes, this is an old book and I have read it before. But reading it again reminded me of the genius of Uncle Orson. This is an amazing book.

Best tool that changed my life in 2006: Google. With Google Calendar in 2006 as well as new tools like Google Reader, this little, big company has helped organize my life. I use Google Calendar for my personal as well as my church (young men's) life. It seems I am a Google sycophant.

Best song of 2006: The Kill by 30 Seconds to Mars. I can't really stand the lead singer and the band itself even annoys me (Emo), but this song grabbed hold of me and never let go. It is quite possible I came to love this song even more after I heard an unplugged, slow version on the radio which was fantastic. A close runner up for the Killers "When I Was Young." Others that come to mind are Gwen's "Wind it up" and Fergie's "Fergilicious" more for the campy, funny variety rather than real music. I mean who can't find a song with the lyric "I'm up at the gym, workin' on my fitness" fun?

Best new food product of 2006: Wheat Thins Sun Dried Tomato and Basil. I think these are probably terrible for you, but dang they are good. And I don't even like Wheat Thins. And I can't believe I bought something with a picture of Rachel Ray on the box.

Best sports moment of 2006: BYU winning the Las Vegas Bowl. I would like to vote Bronco Mendenhall as candidate for President in 2008. Thank you BYU for firing Gary Crowton. Thank you for getting a coach who cares more for values than trying to win. And thank you karma for giving us a great season for focusing on the important things and avoiding any rape charges in 2006. It is nice to be excited for college football again. Ironic that in a season where they only lost two games, I attended one of those losses. Runner up: Travis Pastrana's double backflip on his motorcycle in the Summer X Games. I don't even like motorcycles and watching this live this summer gave me chills. If you haven't seen it, youtube it.

Best funny moment of 2006: Jacob Wall's "your balls would explode" comment.

Best event of 2006: Birth of Enok. We welcomed our own little Third this year - and it has been nothing but a blessing.


Thank you all for your love and company this year. I look forward to a dang good 2007

Bret's Christmas 2006

Tevia's post was pretty good - and contains most of my sentiments, but I thought I would add a few things. I enjoyed the trip to Disneyland. It was a lot of driving and I admit I missed the whole wake up and rush to the presents under the tree routine, but it was nice and built some good memories. My favorite ride was Pirates of the Carribean. Captain Jack could be seen in a few places - and he looked pretty real in a couple of them. In fact, the first sighting I thought was an actual person (I didn't assume Mr Depp was spending his Christmas morning hiding in a ride at Disneyland, but perhaps the character look-alike was). There was also a really cool place where it looked like you were going into a waterfall and the head of Davey Jones was floating. It ended up being smoke with projection on it - but a very cool effect.

It was cool seeing Darth Vader, Darth Maul (who was actually very good at mimicking some of Maul's moves in the film) and Storm Troopers. I was confident they would pick Jarek, but my luck didn't rub off on him this time.

The thing that made the day for me was the fireworks and snow. We had ideal positioning (not really seating) for the show. It was spectacular. I was wondering if they would do any Christmas Carols (i.e. religious - and not just Santa Clausy) and when they put on Joy to the World and Silent Night it brought tears to my eyes to see so many people watching a sight put to the music of worship. Then afterwards the snow (soap) began and it looked very real. It was a beautiful sight set to the music of White Christmas (which, by the way, was written while he was in Phoenix, AZ - hence he was dreaming of ...). I think ideally it would have been to go on Christmas Eve and enjoy that spectacle and then go back home to wake on Christmas day. But unless you live in Southern California, that wouldn't work.

All in all a great trip and worthy of the annals of Wall (no, not anals).

My Christmas 2006

Hi all! Well, I am going to go ahead and post my Christmas experience for this year. I think, and hope, that Bret will post as well since I love to read his writing. I have more time during the day, so get to post first...

Here goes. Well, I have to say that this is one of the most memorable Christmases that I have had, and it came without presents or snow, well kind of. It was very reminiscent of the year my family got to go to Mexico for Christmas. This year we decided instead of exchanging gifts with the Webb family, we would spend the day together at the Disneyland park. It all started off on Saturday the 23rd. The Webb's traveled down here to the valley to spend the day with us. That night we all went to Macaroni Grill for dinner since we wouldn't be able to do a nice restaurant on Christmas Eve like we generally do. Dinner was great and was paid for by our family friend, Paula Sutter. Well, kind of. You see, she had given my parents two visa gift cards to use for dinner; unfortunately, the restaurant didn't accept them. This would be the model of things to come pertaining to meals for the next few days!!

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting and got to hear Jarek and Malik sing with the Primary.

We headed out to CA around 1:30. The drive there was uneventful, but very nice. I am so glad that Bret decided to drive when we got into the more heavy traffic in the LA area. I am telling you, I would not like to live in LA for any reason whatsoever. The traffic on Christmas Eve was just as bad as any other weeknight rush hour traffic. Horrible. And the CA drivers are so awful too. We made it to our hotel safe and sound and then ordered Chinese take out for dinner rather than trying to drive around to find a place to eat. While eating our Chinese food, we watched A Christmas Story as that was playing on TBS for their 24 hour marathon. It was fun laughing together watching that movie.

We woke up bright and early Monday morning in order to catch the first shuttle from our hotel to Disneyland. We decided on this method of transportation since it was 3 bucks per person to ride the shuttle all day long and then we didn't have to worry about parking at the park. Our bus driver was very merry and friendly and the ride was short. Our excitement was almost tangible. We got to the park 7 min later, and joined the throng headed for the gates. As we arrived before the park opened, we had to wait in line with the rest of the merry revelers. It seemed everyone was excited and happy and in a good mood. No crabby line cutters (at this point) and smiles were splashed across the glowing crowds who waited with anticipation for the mad rush through those magical gates.

Ahhh, Disneyland. It is amazing to me the feeling of excitement and happiness that envelopes that place. Even though I know it doesn't have the fastest, or the highest roller coasters, the happy energy there seeps into your heart and really turns your heart young and childlike again. The first order of business was to decide which area of the park we would traverse first. It was unanimous, Pirates of the Caribbean. We basically walked up to the ride the line was so short. The boys loved this ride and even Enok got to go on it. They added a few little changes to the ride to incorporate the movies. This has always been one of my favorite rides. Next we headed to the Haunted Mansion. Bret has never seen this ride as it generally is since both times he has been to Disneyland they have had it decked out in the Nightmare Before Christmas get up. Jarek really doesn't like this ride a whole lot, but put on a brave face and went anyhow. Enok got to go on this ride as well.

At this point our group split up. Quentin and Yesenia decided to go explore the park by themselves so as not to get hindered by our slow progress. This was Yesenia's first time at Disneyland and Quentin wanted to let her get on as many rides as possible since she had never been on any type of roller coaster. (granted, I know these aren't "real" roller coasters compared to what all of you are used to) Jarek decided that he wanted to go to Toon Town to ride the little roller coaster there. We didn't spend too much time there, which was fine with me as that is my least favorite part of the park. There was a line as long as any of the rides there to get a picture with Goofy and Mini. We didn't wait around for that though. They were they only characters we saw all day. Everyone else must have had the day off!!

After that we decided to head over to Tomorrow land so we could catch the Jedi Training Academy, Star Tours, and Space Mountain. We got fast passes to Space Mountain so we had time to do the other two things first. The Jedi Training thing was so fun. They have people dressed up like Jedi and they pick kids from the audience to train with them. Unfortunately Jarek didn't get picked, but like three kids around him did. The kids that got picked were "trained" and then had to face either Darth Vader or Darth Maul. It was really cute and fun. Bret actually talked to other people in the park! He saw a family with BYU paraphernalia and struck up a conversation. Their boys actually got picked to do the training.

After that we waited in line for Star Tours. Last time we went neither of the kids were tall enough to go on this ride, but this time they both were tall enough. They liked it, but Bret liked it the most. He got to go on it twice as I had the parent switcheroo pass, so we got to go on it together. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much after that ride. I loved watching Bret so excited on the ride!

Then it was time for space mountain. I was so excited since both Jarek and Malik were tall enough to ride this one too, and this would be their first roller coaster that actually counts. (the toon town didn't really count) I was worried the whole time that one of them would fall out since I still think they are so small. I waited with baited breath at the exit for them and was relieved to see they all made it safely! Neither of them looked too thrilled, but neither of them were crying either. This is a ride in the dark so I was very proud of them that they were so brave. I got to go on this one too as we had the parent switch pass again. It had been years since I had been on this ride and they had redone it from the last time I rode on it. It was cool!

We were supposed to meet up with Quentin and Yesenia for lunch, but that didn't happen! At this point the park had gotten quite packed. There were long lines for everything, food included. We ended up waiting in line for lunch for almost an hour. But the food was good, and the kids were good too. Enok didn't even get too frustrated.

The rest of the day went by quickly and around dinner time we headed back to the hotel to get dressed warm for the fireworks show that night.

I have to admit, I think the fireworks were one of my very favorite parts at Disneyland. They do three different shows throughout the park and we went to the one by Small World. We had to wait for about 45 minutes as people began congregating to the different places to assure optimal viewing. I walked around with Enok for a bit as he was tired of sitting in the stroller. It was interesting to see all the families. A lot of the little kids were cranky and crying after having been at the park all day. The parents had determined looks on their faces and I could just imagine them thinking, "we made it this long, there is no way we are leaving before the fireworks no matter how cranky the kids are". I laughed to myself thinking that this is supposed to be the Happiest place on earth, and here are crying babies and grumpy parents. But now I know why they all toughed it out. Wow!!! I have never in all my life seen a fireworks display like the one they did that night. It was absolutely amazing. These fireworks were huge and they had beautiful Christmas music along with them. Malik wasn't able to stay awake for them, but Jarek and Enok loved them. After the fireworks, they shot this snow-like substance out over the crowd and the whole effect was just very moving and beautiful. It was so worth the wait and the press of the crowd against us on every side. We eventually made it back to the hotel with happiness and memories indelibly impressed on our minds and hearts.

When we got home from CA, the boys were so surprised and happy that Santa came to our house. Oh, I have to add this little tid-bit. Before we left, Jarek put out cookies, milk and celery for Santa and Rudolph. He left a little note by the plate that read "Jarek said, These are yourse. P.S. We're at Californa, But leve the gifts here." It was very cute. And when we got home, Malik was worried that Santa didn't eat all of the cookies and that Rudolph only took a bite of celery. (we used celery since I didn't have any carrots) So I explained that Santa has to go to a lot of houses and if he ate all the cookies he might get a tummy ache. So he sat there thoughtfully and then said "Well, can I eat the rest of the celery?" It was all wilted and gross looking so I said no.
Then, when he, Malik, saw the presents, he started squealing and grabbed his present and hugged it. They were both amazed that Santa came.

I am glad we went to Disneyland even though it was the most crowded I have ever seen it in my life. The crowds were nothing compared to the fun we had as a family and the memories that were created.

Christmas 2006

Here in Ny it was a very nice Christmas. we had fun watching a few episodes of Battlestar on Christmas eve, then we did our spiritual part on what dad called a more 'adult' level. It was nice and then we did some singing and unfortunately, we were not so good at that. during the Gloria part of Angels we have heard on high, we tried to harmonize and Daisy looked at us and ran up the stairs. :) we didn't go downstairs to see what santa brought until 9am. we are getting in the habit of staying up late now that Kathy is home. there were more presents under the tree than we expected. we had some hints of what we were getting. I knew we were getting 2 games, but one we don't know how to play yet and the other was disney scene it, which we have. dad got his kareoke machine that he wanted, and it came in handy that evening when he and Kevin Prettyman sat and sang for hours. the girls chimed in for awhile. it was adorable when they sang "summer lovin" from Grease. I got a music stereo to play music on in my bedroom, and it has nice sound to it. Tom's stocking impressed him the most, and Kathy got spoiled rotten by Jimmy. we had a nice salmon and tilapia dinner with a great salad, and then the Prettymans, Ricks, Jimmy, and Dinho joined us for dessert later. some of my favorite gifts were the jewelry Tevia made me, the calendars she made us, and the cd Bret made me. I haven't listened to it yet, but I will tomorrow. we will spend some time on Thursday or Friday figuring out how to play eurorails. tomorrow dad and I will be in the city all day for April Sikora's wedding. I am tired today, as Kathy and I were up until 2am, and I feel a cold coming on. so we napped and watched more battlestar and Tom was the only one who had to work. no snow yet. lots of fun pictures with lots of Christmas cards this year, and I believe more lights out and decorations out this year. Kathy and I are already getting excited for the possibility of all being here next year!

In the service of others

I am starting to understand just how much work it would be to be a leader in the Relief Society. And I don't envy them one bit. Let me start at the beginning.

Fact:I am a person who is very self sufficient, and really have a hard time asking for help or allowing people to help me much. Even when I was down on bed rest with Enok, I was very leery and annoyed that others wanted to bring in dinner or take my kids etc... Now granted, I have a very helpful husband and my children are not holy terrors that make me crazy night and day. So I know I have a very good life in those areas. I don't feel like I needed to impose on others.

Fact: I have struggled my whole adult life with my visit teaching. I don't particularly like having to cut time out of my day for people to come visit me when I really don't feel like I need that "social" aspect of the church. It seems far better to just give a VT to someone else than having them waste time and effort on me. I also have not been a very good VT, for the same reason I just gave. I feel like I am just imposing on others when I think their lives are just as crazy and hectic as my own.

Fact: This week I have started to come to a realization that there is indeed a reason for this program.

Earlier in the week I had one of my sisters call me. When she left a message, she didn't really say what was going on and I just figured that she wanted to talk to me about something in primary as she is in primary and I am one of the counselors. I had two phone messages that day, one being from mom wall, the other from this sister. In my mind I thought, hmm, I would much rather talk to mom since I enjoy chatting with her, than call this sister right away. I tried dialing the number to mom's, but kept hanging up. I think I tried it like three times. So instead I dialed this sister. I was so glad that I did. She had just had a doctor's appointment and found out that the baby she was carrying was no longer alive. She had to go in to the doctor on Thursday to get a D&C to clean her out. She wanted to let me know as we had just been talking about baby showers and baby things in general. I immediately asked if there was anything I could do. I told her I would bring her dinner in on Thursday since I figured she wouldn't be up to fixing anything. Then I told her I would contact our RS president. I wasn't sure what I was doing since I have never really been in a situation like this. So I let the RS president know what was going on and figured that my end of the deal was done, you know, hand it off to the compassionate service leader.

Later that night I got a call from the RS president. She had called and talked to this sister and told me that this sister requested some additional babysitting for Friday since her mother-in-law couldn't make it to help her watch the kids. (now I am not sure what is all involved in the whole D&C thing, or how much it puts you out of commission, so I was surprised that she needed more help with child care) Anyhow, The RS president was going to be gone all night and requested that I find some sitters to help out. Oh my goodness. I never realized how hard it is to find help. Granted, it is the last weekend before Christmas and everyone has a ton of things to do. I started to understand how much work goes into arranging service for others. I ended up calling about 7 sisters in the ward, and left messages. In the end I am going to be taking the kids for half the day and another sister is taking them the other half.

Okay, now for what I have learned. As I was driving home from this sisters house tonight after dropping off the dinner, I almost started crying. I am not really sure why. My heart felt full, and I felt a deep sadness as well as love. I know that sounds strange. The sadness came from the fact that her husband is going to be home tomorrow, and still she wants someone to watch her kids because he won't do it. I felt sadness that she is going through this difficult time and doesn't really have a lot of support from her husband as he wanted her to terminate the pregnancy in the first place. I felt sadness that it was so hard to find willing people to help out. I felt love because, although it is kind of an imposition to have to watch the kids tomorrow, I know that it is the right thing to do, and means even more because I would much rather spend my day with Bret (who took the day off to spend with us) and my kids. It is a sacrifice. I don't really have to make many sacrifices in my life so this was an opportunity for me to do so. I struggled with it and tried hard to rationalize getting out of doing it. In the end, I couldn't. I knew I needed to, and I felt even stronger about it after leaving her apartment this evening. Ultimately, this will be a good place for her three boys to be. I am one of the few women in the ward who has boys. This ward is a mostly girl ward. I have toys and distractions aplenty to entertain 6 small boys.

I have a great respect for the RS presidency. They are in charge of all the sisters and helping out everyone. I have such a small stewardship I cannot complain. I feel that this experience has been good for me. My testimony of Visit Teaching has grown, which is quite a feat as I have been struggling with this for a long time. I hope that in the future, I will be more readily willing to help out when the need arises. I have been given so much. I have such a blessed life. I need to do more for others so that the Lord knows I am grateful for what he has given me.

3 Walls at BYU!

Congrats to Tom!!!!!!

Paintball and the amazing dunker

I haven't posted much lately. I will use my usual excuse for the past few months: work. I will not focus on work, but it is obvious I have worked more hours and stressed more about work in the past 3 months than I have for years. I am hoping the new year will bring a new light and load. Many things are still up in the air and I think I will learn more this week.

But besides work taking up so much time and energy, the past two weeks have been fun. Last Saturday we took the young men out into the desert to play paintball. This was my first time playing paintball and I was looking forward to it. We had a lot of fun. It is amazing how much adrenaline such a simple game can create and how much fun it can be. I'm not sure why we like shooting things so much, but I loved it. I actually did very well. We played multiple games and I only got hit three times all day. In one game I actually took out 75% of the other team by myself. The young men loved it (though mom mentioned afterwards that this activity has been outlawed by the church). I'm sure we will go again as long as we don't hear otherwise from the bishop.

This last Thursday I was able to go to the temple with the young men to assist with baptisms for the dead. It was a great evening and it was so fun to see all the young men in the temple. The funny story of the night was I ended up baptizing first. We were there at the same time of another stake (not sure why they scheduled two groups). I started the baptisms and after about half of the young men had gone the other stake asked if they could have one of their men do the baptisms. The temple worker (imagine the stereotypical old guy) looked over and said - "no, this guys doing a fantastic job. I see no reason to switch." After a couple more young men and seeing that the rest of the young men were not from our ward I asked if the other guy could come in (as a couple of the young men were actually his sons). The temple worker once again said no and that it would take too much time to switch. At this point I actually just walked out and had the other guy come in. Maybe the temple worker was mad, but I didn't want to take away the guy's chance to have a great opportunity with his boys just because I'm an amazing dunker.

Christmas is coming up. I am excited. Can't wait for a few days off.

Snow

I don't think "let" is the right word. The weather outside is rather frightful, but we've got places to go, we don't have a fireplace to be delightful, so no, we're not "letting" it snow. It's pretty much just coming down anyway.

According to the Weather Channel website, we've only gotten about 1.75 inches of accumulated snow over the past two days. I would love for them to come look at my parking lot and tell me that's only 1.75 inches. Seriously, what measuring system are they using? Personally, I would guess we've gotten more like 5 to 6 inches. Not that Provo isn't coping with it alright, they're plowing every street but our's, like usual. And people are fishtailing and going 10 miles an hour on major roads, like usual. Jacob is trying his best to scare the crap out of me every time he makes a turn of any kind, like usual. And I'm enjoying the snow until the second I need to go out in it, like usual. That second will come in about 40 minutes, so I'm procrastinating getting ready for church as long as possible. That's not usual, despite what Jacob may say. :-) Just to prove him wrong, I'm going to go get ready now. I hope everyone else has a warmer and dryer Sunday!

Sentimental Cyber Christmas

I don't think there is anything wrong with Karen's desire to have a Sentimental Cyber Christmas... I don't think I ever really had a good idea of what Christmas could be growing up so before this year, I'm not entirely sure I would have understood how you feel. However, before I go on, I don't want everyone to think that childhood Christmases were completely void of magic or the spirit, because, we did almost always wrap gifts for "toys for tots" with the fire department, and would usually do 12 days of Christmas for (surprisingly) a more needy family than our own, and of course there was always the infamous (that means more than famous) freezing your rear off singing Christmas carols... I guess I really can't complain about Christmases past since I can see now a valuable lesson my parents and family worked so hard to teach: serve others, and be grateful for what you have because there is always someone in more need than you.

However, the Christmas spirit I speak of now is that of family. Perhaps I just missed it in my selfish youth, but it seemed that Christmas was always a time for focusing on other people's families and needs (and again, not that there is anything wrong with that), but that mindset sure made not coming home, or spending the holidays with anyone for that matter, a much easier thing... especially on the mission since they were spent in the service of others... just like home! :) But now, with my new in-laws, I've been experiencing the fun of family and togetherness. Kim, my father-in-law, truly is a kid at heart and the family traditions he and his wife established long before my wife was born live strong even today. Every Sunday before Christmas in the month of December we get together for Dinner and light another candle under the rotating Nativity and read the Christmas story in the Bible. Last Sunday it was mine and Millie's turn to read. Then after reading we play a game (a different one each week) to determine how simple ($1-$2 usually funny gag type gifts) are exchanged and traded, similar to the white elephant games.

There are yet many other things to come that are part of the Roper family Christmas traditions and already, it is difficult for me to imagine having to spend a Christmas now with out them in it! So, grandma Wall, be thou sentimental, it's perfectly ok to want to be together and remember Christ and read from the precious records He has provided for us during this sacred season... BUT, if you find yourself pining too much and a bit too lonely, do as I learned in my youth, find someone who needs your service, and serve them. :)

electronically together at Christmas

HI, I know I am being just an old sentmental grandmother and mother, but I will miss you guys that are far away this year. I am hoping Bret sets up the video cam. then I am hoping we find a night or time that Jacob and Cari can be online while we are online with Bret and Tev's home, and we can possibly, just possibly, try to be open-minded now, sing a song read a scripture, and say a prayer together and see the boys open some of their gifts or at least have them show us some of their gifts or have them just smile at me.... something....
when do you AZ Walls leave for CA?
pretend I am senile and humor me...
it will be fun and it will make memories.

The ultrasound and girl names

I actually wanted to take a quick sec to tell about the ultrasound. I wasn't too impressed with the tech we had as she didn't explain some things very well. I don't know if she just assumed we alredy knew everything that was going on (perhaps because Millie was dressed in her scrubs as she had just came straight from clinicals) or maybe she thought this was not our first child... whatever it was, I say "meh" to her.

Anyway... it was kind of funny because I didn't realize I did this but Millie told me when we were leaving... as the tech was about to show us the flavor or our bun, she explained (pointing it out on the screen) here is a leg, and here is another leg, so you're looking at it as if it's sitting on a glass table and you're under looking up... and right here are the three folds of the labia (at this moment I'll have you know that going through my mind was "wait a second... boys don't have labias!) then she said, so, you're looking at a little girl... just then (and this is what I didn't realize but Millie pointed out to me after we left) I slipped out "dang." Millie says she thinks the tech heard me too, although I didn't think it came out vocally at all... oh well.

Needless to say I really am happy to become a daddy and looking forward to raising a little girl... despite what might have slipped out during the ultrasound. :)

So, we are taking gril names at this time for consideration. Millie really likes the name Jane. I think it's fine... for a middle name. A bit too plain and sturdy for a first name though... I like the name Aila (or the spelling Aayla)... Aila Jane Webb. Needless to say, It'll have to get Millies approval too.

teaching at RCK

I already got a call today to sub on monday at RCK. this should be interesting. it is a TA position in special ed. maybe I'll see some kids I know....

black slip

girls, I ended up with a black half slip that is not mine. anyone? anyone?

boy or girl?

Well, for those of you who are in suspense to know the gender of the baby, I should let you know that we were supposed to have found out last Tuesday, however, the ultrasound tech called in sick, so we rescheduled for this coming Monday (the 4th). We'll let you all know as soon as we know, so start thinking of good names too!... sorry Bret, I still don't think Millie would consider Thrace. :)

Turkeys and Leftovers

Well, it has been a while since I have had time to sit down and write something. The last few weeks have been so busy. Work has been crazy and then I took a week off for Thanksgiving. That week was fantastic. It started Friday after work on November 17th when we went up to Show Low for Brandt's farewell. We stayed at Quentin's place which was very nice. Warm with very tall kitchen cabinets. Honestly I don't think Jacob Wall could even reach the cabinets. Saturday morning we went to the Snowflake temple to see Brandt get his endowments. That was great. Sunday was his farewell. Brandt gave a fantastic talk - one of the best I have heard in a long time. It was good to see him as a man.

Saturday night I actually went to Wal-Mart for my brother to see if I could get him a Wii. I wasn't able to get him a Wii, but I was able to get him 3 controllers for my effort. It was weird waiting in a long line of nerds in a Wal-Mart in a small town, but it was a good memory. Since Jake did not get his Wii up in Utah either he left Utah early and came down with Cari and Kathy to AZ. It was fun seeing them when we got back to Phoenix. My parents and Tommy arrived on Tuesday and Jake Webb and Milli arrived on Thursday.

That week, besides being a great relief being away from work, was one of the most fun weeks in years. I loved being with everyone; just talking, playing some basketball, hiking camelback, etc. The weather was perfect. It was nice to be around family that you know cares for you and have fun.

Sunday we blessed Enok in church. Tevia's parents, Brandt, and Jim and Tammy's family came down as well. It was great blessing him with family support. Afterwards everyone had to leave. In fact, Jacob, Cari, and Kathy left right after the sacrament and had our kids and others in tears as we had to say goodbye. It was so touching to see our kids so emotional about saying goodbye to family. The only part that would have been better is when mom and pops and Tommy had their flight canceled they stayed at the airport for hours. They should have just come back to enjoy each other's company just a little longer.

After our wonderful week it was back to work. American Express, my new client, was in this week and we had training all week. I hardly got to even see my family. Monday night I got back late from a dinner. Wednesday night we went to a Phoenix Suns game (very fun - with great seats on the lower level!). It was great to see some old friends from some of the overseas offices and meet some new people. It made me want to work in one of the other offices so bad. So, though a very busy week with little time at home, it was a good one.

I did have something odd happen today at work. I was invited to a meeting in the afternoon for all directors. Upon entering the meeting we were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement that we would not discuss anything that took place in the meeting. Having signed it, I can not comment at this time (as this blog is actually public), but I will let you know in a couple of weeks. It was the first time I have been asked to sign something like that, so it was a little odd.

This weekend I am looking forward to some rest (though I played ball at 5:30 AM this morning and will again tomorrow) and time with the fam. Great to see everyone and come back soon. The hummingbirds miss you.