Austenland

One of my favorite books by Shannon Hale has been made into a movie to be released this summer. It is called Austenland. Hilarious. Love it. They have a great cast with Keri Russell and Jane Seymour. The book and screenplay is written by a mormon female Shannon hale. It is directed by a mormon woman Jerusha Hess. It is produced by a mormon woman Stephanie Meyer. This has got to be a first! Loved the book and the audiences loved it at the Sundance film fest. Can't wait!

Pinterest Glow Bubbles

Let's just say I believe everything I read on the internet. I read that if you dump open containers of glow in the dark fluid into bottles of bubbles that the bubbles glow in the dark. So I b e l i e v e d it and did it in a dark bathroom of mine. I kept blowing bubbles in the dark and I had to push the door ajar so that I could see if the bubbles were even being blown, they were but they weren't glowing in the dark...duh duh duh. The glowing fluid, I could see was all over the front of my sink and my floor, but no glow in the dark bubbles. So sad to be soooo gullible.

Graduation

Todd graduated from high school. He was number 5 in his class behind the 4 valedictorians 3.9gpa. So proud of him. I remember a teacher in his 4th grade class named Mrs. Dearen. She told me one day, "oh, don't worry, he isn't gifted." And another time Todd had to take a test on a Harry Potter book he'd read that had not come out at the movies yet, and she had accused him of not reading it. She even called him a liar when he told her he had read it..then he took the computerized test and he had a perfect score. When he was little he was in Speech from preschool until he was exited at the end of third grade. He had teachers that didn't believe in him and some great ones that did. Mrs. Mortensen was a turning point teacher for Todd. It was the year after his super rude, no faith in Todd teacher Mrs. Dearen, and his self esteem was pretty low. Then she helped Todd get really excited about reading and math. She so believed in him and saw him for so much more than mrs. fancy pants. In the next 2 years, Todd's reading level skyrocketed, and he had the highest math scores in the 6th grade. Mrs Ledek was also very instrumental in boosting his self esteem in performing in school. Of course we worked at home through all the years, but great teachers made all the difference. In kindergarten and first grade, Todd had a great start with a very kind teacher named Mrs. Nelson. Those first years were so hard with his speech delays, and she helped him feel normal and accepted. On Halloween, a couple years later, he took her her favorite, Hershey's kisses. So proud of Todd and all he had to do, and so appreciative to his excellent teachers in our public school system!

Kirtland 24th floats

We had better floats this year... and then again we had an interestingly inappropriate one. There was one done by a ward that shall remain nameless, that had a couple of kids fake "tarred and feathered" and then on the back had a girl with a cutout of a beer bottle acting like she was chugging it. The theme was trials then and now, the then is obvious and the now was the Word of Wisdom. What can I say... for real? There was a very hilarious float done by 4th ward. It was dipicting the seagulls eating the crickets. They were all dressed up like seagulls downing the crickets at picnic table along with 2 Elders with the signs "Elder Sea," and "Elder Gull" on their shirts. I loved the black pipe cleaner leg sticking out of Sister Jones' mouth and her cricket sandwich. Tooooo funny.

Matched

I loved Matched by Ally Condie! It's supposed to be a trilogy. Each book is the color of each of the pills in their pill box.

The dump

When I was a kid my dad-"the mechanic"-would take me and my brother Cliff to the dump. It was at that time big open pits of all kinds of things. There were old mattresses, broken toys, dead animals, and of course the big draw for my dad-old cars. He would take us there and he would go off looking for car parts-it was free here not like those expensive salvage yards! Cliff and I were left to wander around on our own. I remember coming close to the edge of the dead animal pit, and Cliff who was probably 9 so I was 6, warning me not to step too close to the edge or I'd fall in. We found all kinds of junk there, and I thought it was super fantastic until I got a more mature and hygenic brain. When they closed that dump and put up big signs that said, "NO SCAVENGING!" that was a very sad day for my dad. I on the other hand had grown up and found that day to be one of the best days of my life! But, there were still trash cans at work to go through and things that were on the side of the road to pick up, so my dad still had his sources, but definitely not as exciting as our old dump.

The lightning storm and the Rabbit

Being a mechanic's daughter means that you have witnessed the true limits of cars. This includes how far a car can go without gas. In other words, running out of gas was not unknown to me. One day, in New Mexico up on highway 550, our Volkswagen Rabbit ran out of gas. The Rabbit was of course packed with my siblings. My sister(Fauna) I think said we need to get out and push. We all exploded out of the car-as it was very small-and started pushing. The sky was very dark and it started thundering. I was probably 8 or 9. Anyway the hair on the back of my neck started standing up. So we started pushing faster and faster. The lightning followed and the thunder was so close to when we saw the lightning that you knew it was close. Rain started then, of course. Somehow we made it home...without gas. Later my mother revealed to me that any time you feel your hair stand up on you, lightning is about to strike, and you are a very likely candidate for the grounding. Oh, the fun times we had on the New Mexico roads!