Good Idea, Bad Idea

Does anyone remember the show Animaniacs? My sis Mary Lynne and I used to watch it regularly, and we generally enjoyed the segment "Good Idea, Bad Idea". Here's a short clip in case you are clueless on the matter.



Although not necessarily as clever or as funny as Animaniacs, I would now like to share with you my own good idea (and bad idea).

Good Idea - Making the following recipe for dessert:

1 white cake mix
1 can lemon pie filling
Cool Whip

Mix cake as directed on box and pour into a 9x13 pan. Place spoonsful of lemon pie filling in blobs over batter. Bake as directed on the box. Let cool completely. Cake batter covers the lemon, so there will be pockets of lemony filling inside. Spread cool whip over cake and chill.

Bad Idea - Just mixing lemon pie filling with yellow cake mix and baking at 350 for 30 minutes.

Anyway, Preston and I went over to Mary Lynne and Nathan's for dinner this fine evening, and Mary Lynne and I decided to make an experimental dessert. I can't really explain how it turned out. It was interesting, to say the least. To describe the "dessert" taste, Mary Lynne said it tasted how Play-Doh smells. Yes, it was THAT good!

Well, I suppose now would be a good time to post something about the happenings in our life. My knee is almost completely better. It's not better enough to go skiing (sorry Preston), but it's completely functional now. I'd like to take this time to thank Janet for being so supportive...er...I mean her knee braces were supportive. Thanks for letting me borrow them. : )

Preston runs again on Friday, and he's been under the time limit every night in his practice runs. Hooray!!! He's been working through a foot injury though, but seems to be slowly recovering. I think he had some sort of pulled ligament or tendon. I seem to have caught Gimp's Disease from him.

We had a super rad Stake Conference this weekend. Elder Holland was here, and he was so much fun! We loved both meetings we attended! It was just a happy, happy weekend, but now we're both alone again (until next weekend). : (

This Kind of Thing Happens Only to Old(er) People

So Preston and I went to Las Vegas (to attend Harmony's blessing) and back on Sunday with the Millers. After we arrived home, I stepped out of our vehicle and my right knee buckled beneath me. I tried to stand on my right leg again and felt a sharp pain pierce my knee. With the pain came more buckling and a popping sound. I couldn't stand up! I hadn't sustained an injury (that I could recall). Anyway, I went back to Las Vegas again today to visit the doctor and the x-ray machine. It turns out I just have quite a bad strain and/or sprain. I was told to stay off my feet for a week. I just laughed. Silly doctor.

Safe Shopping

Here's a funny sign we saw in the parking lot of the "Ghettos Mall" (Meadows Mall) a few days before Christmas.

Winter Fun

So, as everyone knows, it snowed a lot. It snowed for two days straight in St. George, and it snowed in Las Vegas. Here's a cell phone picture of what I saw out my front door right after the snow began to fall. (Note: This picture does not fully capture the true snowy blizzardiness.)

Now, I'm not complaining about the snow (like everyone else is). I loved it! I wish it had snowed more. I just heard a lot of whining at work today from customers that were terrified by 4 or 5 inches of snow everywhere BUT the roads. I'll admit the roads were a smidge slushy this morning, but that's about it.

Nathan & Mary Lynne invited me to their ward's Christmas party tonight, since I was all alone. For an activity, they had a box at each of the 20 or so tables filled with random Christmasy items that we were decorate our tables with. Mary Lynne and I had a great idea to tear the box apart and make a little dog gingerbread house (with a crazy tree in the backyard). See below:

Christmas Cheer

Check out this totally awesome holiday giveaway by The Cupcake Goddess! I think you might be interested...CLICK HERE to enter the contest. You could win this:

There are two other spectacular prizes too. Also, check out how much it snowed in Cedar (in only a few hours) on Saturday.

O Tannenbaum

Yup, that's our tree. Anyway, it's more like my tree since I got up at 4 AM last year to get it on a Black Friday sale, since I found and bought all the decorations, since I decorated it all by myself, and since I look at it every day BY MYSELF! I was thinking I'd get full-time husband for Christmas, but better luck next year. Seriously though, better luck next year. Preston does his special timed run on Friday, and I think he's going to make it! Hopefully he moves here two to three weeks after that. Yippee skippee!

Jubilee of Trees

A week or two ago, my sister Mary Lynne, my bro-in-law Nathan, little nephew McKay, Preston, and I went to the festive Jubilee of Trees. Where's Mary Lynne? Sadly, we won't see her in this segment.

Mckay loved all the lights.

See these trees?

As evidenced by this picture, Preston is more jolly than Santa.

It Actually Worked This Time

As I was driving from unspecified Point A to unspecified Point B tonight, I noticed another driver (who was sharing the same unspecified road with me) was driving rather erratically. Fairly early on in my 1.75 hr journey I saw this other car speed up to 90 mph and slow down to 60 mph and then speed back to 90 repeatedly. Also, this car "penned" others in next to various semi trucks, and four or five times the frustrated "penned" car "brighted" the lousy driver. This was all done while this vehicle was crossing their lane line every few seconds. Oh yeah, their brights were on the whole time too. I debated for a time whether or not to call highway patrol. My past efforts to stop crazy, drunk-acting drivers in Las Vegas had gone unassisted by law enforcement, so my thought tonight was, "What difference does it make whether or not I call highway patrol? They won't show up, as usual." I did recall an instance or two where Preston phoned the appropriate authorities while observing totally nutso driving in Las Vegas, and at least one of his calls was responded to, resulting in arrest of an underage drunk driver. As I neared my destination, I decided to make the phonecall. I gave the highway patrol dispatcher the description I had, and she said, "We actually received a call earlier on this same vehicle. We'll get someone on it." I'd heard that line before. After a mile, I noticed an officer in the median and wished that he would pull out and get the car. Well, much to my surprise, the patrol truck did pull out and sped, with great gusto and decisiveness, up to this car to pull him over. Yay! My phonecall finally worked! So, I just want to say to everyone who drives that if you see a car that you suspect to be loaded with a dangerous driver, please make a phonecall. It's your responsibility. I'll never wait that long again!

Nothing to Report

I wish had an interesting post for today, but alas, I do not. Preston and I live apart during the week, and I've been leaving the computer with him; therefore, I have been unable to write anything. It is now the weekend, and I've forgotten everything clever I had to say. I will say that since we've been living apart, Preston has been motivated to go running every day, sometimes twice, in order to get his time down so he can come live with me. How sweet is that?

Exactly

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." - Abraham Lincoln

What we'll miss...

We're pretty happy to be leaving Las Vegas. That sounds pretty crazy eh? How could one be happy to leave one of the hippest, most swingin' places on earth? Well, the answer can be found in that question. It's a little too hip and swingin' for our taste. We've thoroughly enjoyed our years here. There are many, many things we'll miss about good old LV. We'll of course miss all our dear friends and wonderful family (ESPECIALLY the Chamberlains for their ESPECIALLY wondrous wonderfulness), but since we're only moving 130.18 miles away, it's really no biggie. So, we'll miss:


1. Being able to go out for a treat (i.e. ice cream or wings) after midnight.

2. The shopping! This includes the Nordstrom Rack, Cost Plus World Market, and Las Vegas Premium Outlets.

3. Tamale availability (especially the ones sold out of car trunks in the Walmart parking lot, but we actually never bought those. We'll just miss being regularly offered them. )

4. My place of work. I really got attached to my co-workers and regular customers.

5. (This is the place where we'd list "the water park", but since they got rid of that, we can't really list it. We're just so ANGRY about that. ; ))

6. The variety of restaurants. I know we listed food before, but now the focus is variety. We love Carino's, the Geisha Steakhouse, Eiffel Tower Restaurant, Planet Holleywood Spice Market Buffet, Claim Jumper, Roberto's, Pho Saigon 8, & Hush Puppy.

7. Our first house.

8. The Nevada resident discount on various shows and exhibits.

9. The IMAX options.

10. The numerous radio stations from which I won prizes. Since most stations generally have a rule about winning something no more than monthly, it helps to have different stations to win from. I've only won about 7 prizes while I've lived here though, so actually it's not that much of an issue.

11. The Bellagio Fountains and Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

12. Our Sunday School class. We'll miss them because we won't have as many people to tease, but after a few months I'm sure we can find replacements. I'm not sure if that Amber kid can be replaced though. She's pretty "special".

Because this was not a well thought-out posting, we're sure there are several items we've left off the list. If we can think of anything else, we'll add it. In closing, I'd like to quote the words from a Disney song sung by Jesse Mccartney: "My whole world is changing. I don't know where to turn. I can't leave you waiting, but I can't stay and watch this city burn...watch it burn..."

Math Problems

Preston and I have talked to several people who haven't even heard about the following clip. For this reason, we feel we need to post it in order to spread the joy we feel when we watch it.



If we didn't listen to The Mark Levin Show or visit The Drudge Report daily, we wouldn't have known about it. For reasons completely unknown, television news stations refuse to show it. Ha ha.

If you listen closely, he says "John's last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S." There are two problems. First, he says that the JOB facing the middle class is JOBS? Interesting. I'm not sure how that makes a lick of sense. The second problem is obvious. He needs to go back to preschool, because I'm pretty sure that's where they cover counting to three (if you already didn't learn it at home). I'm most certain that if Sarah Palin had called "jobs" a three-letter word, it would have been unforgivingly exploited through all media channels.

Oh yeah, our other favorite quote of his is: “When the stock market crashed (in 1929), Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’ ” The reason this quote is so fun is that Herbert Hoover, not Roosevelt, was president at the time, and commercial television didn’t exist.

Recommendation

Preston and I have been considering various water storage options and have come across this nifty little device. Whether or not you plan to store many gallons of water at home, this dandy water purifier would definitely come in handy. Even if your emergency plan involves moving to a cave in the mountains, as long as you can find water, there will be no worries.

As you'll read on the website, this bottle will purify water that's contaminated with bacteria AND viruses, as well as metals, chemicals, fungi, and parasites. It's incredible! The great part is, we don't work for this company. So, whether you choose to buy one or not, we could care less. Now, I say we "could care less" instead of we "couldn't care less", because we actually do care. We want to you have safe water to drink. Go to the site and check out the demo, ok?

lifesaversystems.com

7 Facts - By Preston

7 Facts -- I was tagged!
Here's how to play:
1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I believe almost every meal is better with bacon --- sandwiches, pizza, salads, pastas, breakfast, etc.

2. I sing. Kristin wishes I'd do it more. As a child I was part of "The Jane Porter Singers", and I was in a show choir in high school.

3. I miss farming. I miss driving tractors and the smell of freshly cut Timothy.

4. Kristin wants me to say that I'm a good speller, because she thinks it's a weird fact that a boy would be a good speller. She obviously didn't know any Canadian boys before me.

5. I had an 8-cow mission.

6. I'm a cancer survivor.

7. I used to have bright red hair. After the chemotherapy made all my hair fall out, it grew back in brown.

Everyone has already been tagged, so I'm skipping rules #3 and #4.
Kristin did her tag on the other blog.

Don't Tase Me, Bro!

Here's the video that Preston BEGGED me for days to watch. I kept telling him, "No thanks!" The thought of watching it both horrified and saddened me. I finally gave in to Preston's constant nagging, and what was the result of viewing it? I'm even more horrified and saddened. Enjoy!