Twilight Years

I've seen it a couple different places and got a laugh out of it. Just thought that I'd share it with everyone. Even if you don't really like Twilight I think you'll like this........enjoy!

Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.

New Moon, NeW MooN, NEW MOON!!!

First I'm going to say that this post is late because I was waiting to get the picture from Itzie so it's not entirely my fault that it's late, I did write it just after we went. That being said let me continue.

So yesterday Itzie and I went to see NEW MOON. I'll just say LOVED is not a strong enough word. It was fantastic. It was most definitely worth standing/sitting outside for 1.5 hours in the cold to see it at 3:30 AM and being tired the next day. I guess being tired though is our own fault we were going to take a nap so that we wouldn't be so tired but like that happened. Itzie and I goofed off and then couldn't fall asleep. Well I should say Itize probably could have fallen asleep if I hadn't been super hyper and so excited to that point that I couldn't sleep and kept talking nonstop. Oh well, we got a little sleep (about 1 hour). Needless to say she and I were pretty grouchy come Friday night after the movie, work all day and then the Grizzlies game that night.

Picture of the group of us waiting in line to get in.

The first movie was great and this one was even better. The details were better and it was much more exciting, especially the Volturi scene.

Can I just say that Jacob is HOT in the movie. I'm totally Team Edward after reading the books but I'll say I just might be siding a little with Team Jacob in the movies. I am undoubtedly a TWILIGHT fan all the way. Anywhere we go that there is anything dealing with the TWILIGHT saga I have to stop and look - I just can't help it there's like a magnetic pull. I mean I even own 3 vampire/TWILIGHT inspired shirts.

I highly recommend that each of you reading this go see NEW MOON if you haven't already (that includes you too Peter maybe it will convince you to read the books also).

Back to real life now and............

Let the countdown to Eclipse's release start.

Fantastic New CRICUT website

Okay, so I came across this AMAZING new Cricut website just yesterday. It's great and even better she has a cutting guide that can help you know what settings to use to cut various materials with your Cricut. If you love Cricut then you should definitely check out this site. The site is called Above Rubies Studio. Since the site is brand new they are also doing some fantastic giveaways over the next couple weeks.

Confessions of an Addict

So I'll admit it. I'm addicted. Yes you heard me I'm addicted to Twilight. I just can't seem to get enough. So what that I never read the books before the movie came out and I didn't even see the movie when it first went to theaters BUT after seeing the movie when it came out on video I was hooked. I immediately went out and got all the books from the library and ready them in less than one week (more like 5 days in all actuality). Since then I've seen the movie at least 25 times. It's the truth and not an exaggeration at all.

So when they first announced that they were going to make New Moon into a movie I was ecstatic. As soon as the opening day for the film was announced I started looking online for when tickets would be available. After waiting no so patiently until I could finally find tickets available, I can now say that I'm in possession of tickets for the opening night/day.

CHA-CHING BADA-BING!!!

Itzie and I will be attending a showing, along with a bunch of our friends, at 3:30 am on Thursday night (Nov 19) /Friday morning (Nov 20). Sadly, David has to work and won't be able to go with us. Although I honestly don't think David to too disappointed, he'll make a full recovery very soon.

Purchasing tickets made my week and I was soooooooo giddy with excitement that Itzie's actual words were, (and I quote) "How old are you again?" So it's official - I'm a Twilight addict and my sister thinks I'm only about 3 years old. Oh well, it's all worth it in the end.

Counting down the blissfully happy days one by one until New Moon comes out. (sigh) Life is GOOD!!

So You Think......

Can I just say that I love, Love, LOVE So You Think You Can Dance. I watch it every week. I mean come on amazing dancing in all styles each week, how much better than that can you get? I'm glad that Jeanine won. Brandon was amazing too but I really enjoyed watching her dance. I'm glad that's she's the one that won. It makes me happy that the show will be back on in September again. YEAH!!!! Bet you can't guess what I'll be watching this fall.

Fantastic Fourth

So David and I had a pretty normal Fourth. David slept most of the afternoon because he worked Friday night and Lesley and I went shopping at the craft store. Yeah for the craft store. So much fun especially when there's a clearance sale. Ahhhhh yes the job of sale shopping. Anyways - no big plans for us.

Lesley and I decided that we would walk up to the fireworks in Pleasant Grove on Saturday night since David had to work and we didn't know when they would be over. It wasn't as far as I thought it would be, it's only about seven blocks to the Junior High where they were setting them off at. Lesley decided that we needed to sit right up front and center so we were pretty much right under the fireworks. It was fun and kinda loud. The booms were reverberating off something behind us so it was like we heard each firework three or four times. Here's a video of the end of the show and the finale. And yes that huge red one at the end dropped soot and ash all over and around us. The wind changed right at the end and blew the finale smoke in our direction.

(Sorry it's not a great video it was hard to shoot when they were almost right over us.)

While we were waiting for it to get dark enough to start the show, Lesley and I had fun taking random pictures with the camera. Yeah it was fun and I was in a silly mood so enjoy.

The Dark Side

So it's official. Lesley has come over to the dark side. She bought a pair of bright pink high heels last night. Yes I said bright pink and HEELS!!! It's so exciting and only took less than 2 months. Ahhhhhhhh...........I feel like my work is complete here. Thank you.

Proof of the purchase.

And one more thing. HAPPY 22nd BIRTHDAY LESLEY!!! Hope yesterday was great.

Bundle of Joy

Not only was this past Sunday Father's Day but we also had the opportunity to attend the blessing of one of our nieces. It was great to get to be there for it. Julia Emma was born to David's brother Scott and his wife Brenda the end of May and is such a bundle of joy. She is adorable and I'm glad that we live close enough to see her often and watch her grow. It seems she has changed so much in the few weeks since she was born already. Little ones change so quickly.

She was blessed in one of the blessing dresses that David crocheted when the twins were born. Since I was not in the family at the time the twins were blessed this was the first time that I have seen the dress. Lets just say the pictures don't do it justice. They are BEAUTIFUL!!!! I can't believe that David is so talented and crochets so well. It's absolutely amazing. I can crochet a little but David is really good at it.

Julia Emma in her blessing dress

Having David's dad in town for Father's Day was great too. We love him very much and are thankful that he is part of our life. We don't typically get to spend Father's Day with our dads and it was great to get to do it this year with one of them. Thanks to both our dad's for always being there and for being so supportive in our lives. We couldn't ask for better fathers than the two of you. Dad S and Dad H we love you both very, very much and hope you had a fantastic Father's Day.

The Day of Days...

Today was, or is Saturday and for the most part was very good, to start out I will rewind just a little so that you can understand the day more, Friday night I played racquetball with the family in Midville, UT. After we were done we left to go home and I needed to go to work shortly after I arrived home. While walking out the door, I realized that I was without my cell phone. Shelena and I looked for it everywhere, and then it hit me, I left it at the gym. So, now Saturday when I got home I passed out on my bed, and was woken up around 1130 to be told that Shelena and Les were going up to Salt Lake City to retrieve my cell and go shopping. Shelena and Les got back around 1730 (530pm) and I had woken up around 1715. After we had something to eat we went to look at a house for the Parade of Homes, which was amazing, and in most cases unaffordable. When we got home from that it had started to rain and did it rain. All in all the day was a great one. The one thing that Shelena and her sister started to do is organize the DVD collection and I have inserted a few of the pictures that I have taken of this process.

In these few pictures you have seen the fun one must go through to reorganize our DVD collection, something that you do not see in the pictures is that Shelena is putting each DVD into the computer with all it's information, or making sure the DVD is there by searching the list on the computer. This is a normal sight to see when playing with the DVDs, I was able to sit this one out and take pictures. Today has been one of those days you would not like to miss, it is the Day of Days.

Hitting the bottom of the Barrel

There has always been a barrel in our lives. We are the care-takers of this barrel, we will put things in it that will make us happy, and we will put things in it that will tear us down. some we are proud of and some well, some are there and we can not change them. As life has been so kind to give us this barrel to do as we wish, I have show it love and put things in there that have shown me the way to live my life. some have been good, and a good share as been bad. all in all I have learned from each of these moments that have been placed in my barrel. some of the moments that I have recently put in my barrel is going to UvU (Utah Valley University) and playing on their Racquetball team for 3 years and some. while on the racquetball team I was placed as the president of the team for those 3 years, granted the first two years where a lot easier than the last year was, but it has been an adventure to say the least. our team was very good this year and will be much better next year, as the program gets back on its feet after a long drop down the the bottom of it's barrel. ever since I started playing racquetball, or I should say ever since Mark, my brother won me in racquetball, and put that fire in me to excel in this sport I have done just that, I have excelled in Racquetball. Now I durring the last month I have been coaching 3 - 4 people each week on how to play racquetball, and know that they are playing the right way. Other moment I have placed in my barrel has been a great success to me, and to those that have helped me on my way. I recently Graduated form UVU with my Bacholors of Science in Criminal Justice, looking for a job in Law Enforcement. durring those days that lead up to that day, where fun and interesting and memorable. Right before Finals, I had appied to graduate a week before the due date was, I was just getting ready to go to class and the graduation department called and told me that I had 2 credits that I need to graduate. At this moment I started to FREAK OUT... so I call Shelena and told her what I had been told and I could hear it in her vioce the rushing emotions of worrie and confusion as if being dropped into the rushing rivers of dispear. in that hour after the call I emailed my counselor 5 or 6 times with questions of "help me help me" requests. by the time I went to class that night, I was feeling like there was no hope in the world. it happend to be that I had my counselor Bobbi for my Professor in that class. once she saw me she came up to me and told me what had happen, and told me that everything was fix and I would be graduating this May. I felt like she had seen me falling and put out her hand helping me to the surfice and putting me back on the road of life. the week before I had asked my supervisor to have the night before off so that I could get some sleep before graduation. I had got that day off, and I was glad to be able to have the time to get so rest so I could be awake for my graduation, or that was the plan. that day came and shelena and I were cleaning our house so that we could welcome my Mother and father in our home. we cleaned and cleaned and as the time escaped us before we knew it my parents were late coming in. so I ofcourse got worried and called them, and they were at Beaver/fillmore area and so we talked for a moment and then I let them go. I figured that they would be geting there shortly after 0100. about 5 or so minutes had passed and I got a phone call from my mother and was told that the truck had just broke down, and now I was really worried. I stayed on the phone with them for a while. they call a tow truck and then called me back once they got to the resting spot of their truck. they had told me where they were and I started on my journy down to get them. it took me about 2 hours to get there and pick up my mother and father. when we got back to my place it was a little after 0500 and I was ready for bed. Graduation day was now here. graduation was a blast for the first hour or so, Pres. Monson spoke and I noticed two things, first when he stood up to go speak, most of those that were there also rose and started to clap, for him. but that is not what I noticed, I noticed that one of my friends that is not a part of the LDS faith did not rise when all around him did. after the talk or encouragement that was in no way talking about the church but only about life, and how to live in the best ways possible. as Pres. Monson was finishing the crowd rose up again and started clapping. at that moment my friend that was sitting at the first stood and joined in the applause. after that moment the day ran together and Boy! was it a long day. my parents and my wife and I went to the lunchen afterwards and enjoyed the small snake that was provided. soon after we arrived home (Pleasant Grove) my parents and I started down to retreve their truck that had be fix. which has supprised us due to the problem of the brake down. The truck broke down and once stopped a fire started in under the hood where the engine was located. my father thru dirt on it to get it out which is not the best thing in the world but is better then nothing at all. I want to thank my mother and father for making that trip up for my graduation. I needless to say enjoyed the Long SRD that I had going to fillmore and back twice. it gave me a lot to think about. later that night we (mom, dad, Shelena and I) met up with Ben & Ellonor Carrick to have a dinner and enjoy each others company until I had to end the night with me going to work. that was a good day, filled with interesting and enjoyable moments.
As the time as gone by and I have been doing little as far as living goes, after graduation, I found myself in a rut. this rut has been getting more and more deep as I have pressed hard and fast to a life that I do not want. an addiction of pride, and self want and come into my life taking me down to the bottom of the barrel where I have tried nothing to escape myself. that changed tonight as I found myself hitting the bottom of the barrel and not liking where I was and what I was doing with my life. I remember many movies that have the line "when was it that you knew that is was right" as if there was one moment that turned the course of this ship they call life. well, I know that there have been many of moments leading up to this point where I have hit the bottom of the barrel and I know that if I do nothing still I will have nothing, and will be going nowhere. so in that, the only way I have to go is up, and I know that this will be hard, and long, but i will do what I can to stay on this journy until I have found my way back to the top of my barrel, filling it with happy moments, and not so many sad ones.

Just for the moment now, Thank you all for helping me with the journy I have so choosen to start. I Love you Family, Friends and all that effect my life.

Near Death of a Computer

So as fate would have it I came home last night to a computer that wouldn't turn on. Oh yeah, let me tell you that was not fun - especially since I didn't know exactly what had happened or what had caused it and I was afraid of losing everything on our hard drive if it had crashed (Bad experience before when other computer's hard drive crashed and we lost everything so I was totally justified in being worried). 

After numerous attempts to get it to work and trying everything I could think of to reset parameters and reboot it I decided we needed professional help to solve this problem. (Enter MAC Genius Bar). Yes we had to take our sick computer to the Doctor, or I guess in this case I guess it would be a "Genius", to get it fixed. So today we drove up to SLC to the MAC store to have them look at it. The "genius's" first attempt to get it to work resulted in a FAIL too. After working with it and booting from an external hard drive they use for the purpose of checking computers, he was able to get it to boot and to run some disk utilities to determine the problem. 

Good news ~ He was able to easily solve the problem - some how a bunch of the computer parameters had gotten altered and they were not allowing the computer to boot up properly.

Better news ~ He had to reinstall the operating system on the computer to get it to reset all the parameters and fix it (and no we did not lose one single thing in the process ~ all our data is safe and sound and back on the computer).  Since I have Leopard, (for those of you who don't know what that is it is MAC OS X 10.5) he went ahead and installed Leopard on my machine instead of just reinstalling Tiger (MAC OS X 10.4). I've been too much of a scaredy cat (no pun intended) to do it before, for fear of losing all the pictures and files that were on our computer. After watching him today I realized I could have easily done it myself it was super simple. Oh well, at least it's done now.

BEST news ~ Since we now have Leopard installed we get to use Time Machine!!! Yes that's right our MAC will now automatically back itself up on our external hard drive every hour of every day. That means no more worries about losing data or accidentally deleting something we really need. Now all I have to do is run time machine and I can "travel through time" back to a day when I knew I had the file and retrieve it. I mean come on the this is the closest I think I'll ever get to time travel.

So after a pretty terrible start to the weekend, it definitely turned out alright in the end and everything is now in working order.

We Survived

We survived the week and have now recovered from it. I did well at DanceSport and David enjoyed playing in the tournament at UVU.

My partner and I made it to the quarter-finals in Novice Standard which is great. They cut about 40% of the couples in the first cut. We were happy with how we did and enjoyed competing. The professional dancers that they invited this year for the Battle of the Champions were AMAZING!!!!! It was great to watch them dance on two different nights.  I love DanceSport and definitely look forward to it each year. I took lots and lots of pictures so now I just have to go through them all and decided what ones are the best and what ones to get rid of. I hope to have gotten through all of them by the end of this week, but we'll see.

David kept busy with the tournament and did decently considering how tired he was by Saturday.  It was also a successful fundraiser for the team who will be going to Nationals in just under two weeks.

This Week Will Be Crazy

So this coming week is bound to be the most chaotic and hectic week all year. DanceSport Nationals at BYU starts on Wednesday night with the DanceSport Congress and goes through Saturday night. Three full days of ballroom dance - YES!!!! I can hardly wait. I look forward to this all year long. Again this year I'll be competing so it will be fun.  I also love to take pictures so I'm sure that I'll come home with tons of pictures.

On top of it being DanceSport Nationals David also has a racquetball tournament at UVU that goes from Thursday to Saturday.  Needless to say it's going to be a busy week. I'm sure that somehow we'll manage and make it though to next week. I'll be sure to try and post at least a few pictures from DanceSport after it is finally over and life returns to normal. Until quieter times in our life resurface.

Sports Mall Tournament

More racquetball tournament fun. David attended the Sports Mall Tournament in Salt Lake City on February 19 to February 21, 2009. This tournament was tough on him. David had been sick for the full week prior to this so he was just starting to feel better when he had to play, needless to say he did not play at full strength. He did okay considering the circumstances and still had fun participating. This tournament seemed to be a challenge for everyone on the UVU Racquetball team.

Yes there really are four people in that one court. This was one of David's doubles games. His doubles partner, Peter, is the one on the far right of the picture.

UVU Racquetball Tournament

UVU held their first tournament of the year on Saturday, January 31, 2009.  Here are some pictures of David playing in the tournament.

David playing singles.

We Have A BLOG!!

So I got the idea that we should have a blog. That way we can post stuff so that friends and family can know what is going on in our life. I'm excited about it, well at least for now, we'll see how long it takes for the excitement and newness of it to wear off.  So be sure to check back and see what we've been up to.  Hope you enjoy reading about the going ons in our life.  I'll try to keep it as up to date as I can.  Much Love to All.