Re: The Big Move

Here is the short update. Caren and I are in our new home. On Friday we should get our phone problem sorted out. After that I think we can say all is good. I will update the finer details by the end of the week as I am trying to catch up with homework and TA duties that I missed the past couple of days.

PS How long should it take these posts to show up on the web site? Just wondering.

The Big Move

So Caren and I are moving into our new home on Monday, 28 November. After this is all said and done I will post a nice blog of all that took place to get us into our new home. Everyone in the family will have helped us out in some way shape or form in the entire time it has taken us to move into our new home. We would like to thank everyone now and we will also thank everyone again once this whole ordeal is over with. We love you all.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I love you all!

Jen and Jeff are famous!

I was just trying to look up Jen and Jeff on Google so that I could look at the satellite pictures of their house (I'm spying on them, yes)--and I found out that they are quoted in an article from the Arizona Tribune's website! Wow! The article was about the big, extensive family reunion from Jeff's side that they went to in July, and about the polygamous nature of the ancestor's family.

Jeff Roy and his wife, Jenafer, talked polygamy on the drive up from Queen Creek, and Jeff wonders how it would work. Could more wives coexist in their four-bedroom home? Just how many trips to Wal-Mart each week would that be? Would there be 10 children or 17, instead of their current four with another on the way? (Yes, they have a Benjamin.) Think of all the dance lessons.

"You know, I would think that that would be pretty hard," says Jeff, 31. "I don't know exactly what the future will hold as far as polygamy goes. I don't know whether I will be doing that in the next life or not. If that's something that I am supposed to do, then it will be worked out."

How, exactly, is not something he expects to understand in this lifetime. But Jenafer thinks she could do it.

"With the right woman, if I could handle her," says Jenafer, 29, who is pondering both this question and whether she should buy a B.F.J. Reunion T-shirt.

"Obviously, when I was a teenager, I never thought I'd go along with it, but if the Lord came to us and said, 'I need you to do this,' I think I could."

So here's why polygamy seemingly cannot, will not, just fade into history: This possibility, this "what if?" still lurks. Jeff and Jenafer and the Mormon Church all agree that Colorado City is awful. At the same time, they honor their ancestors and their belief in the Mormon Church - caught between a gospel they love, a seemingly immoral code and faith that in heaven, be it monogamy or polygamy, everything will be OK.

Awesome quotes, guys. You are so cool and so famous!

RE: Puzzles

Hey, I've enabled the comments on Mema's puzzle post so that you can leave your answer there, but unless you click into the comments section you won't see other people's answers. So that way the game won't be spoiled. Does that make sense? I hope so. It's kinda late here. Maybe I should go to bed.

I love you all!

Puzzles

Dad brought home some papers with quizzes on them. He thought they would be fun to post on the blog. We decided that one at a time would be good. Here is the first one. Go for it.

There are 5 houses in different colors. In each house lives a person of a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. Using the clues below can you determine who owns the fish?

The Brit lives in a red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
The green house owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the house right in the middle drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blend lives next door to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps horses lives next door to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the Blue house.
The man who smokes Blen has a neighbor who drinks water.


Okay, good luck. By the way, I don't have the answers so I am right in there with you. Love Mom

Middle Earth

So, family, I guess you have been wondering where I have been, I have been here all this time. I have been reading your posts and enjoying them but I just have not been writing any of my own. I took the quiz and I am the same as Telima. I always knew we had something in common, now I know what it is. I love you all.

Middle Earth Quiz

Well, I guess I'm an Ent! That means I'm older than all of you! Go figure. =) Anyway, sorry that I've been absent so long. It's like I forgot all about this place for a week and a half. So, I'm going to answer the favorite piece of clothing question in order to catch up. I love sweaters and jackets. I think that's why I like Fall so much. I absolutely love getting out my sweaters and jackets when the weather turns cold.

Anyway, I love you all and can't wait to see you! I hope that everyone is doing great!

Love always, Telima

RE: Middle Earth Race

So...LaDale is ethereal, Samuel is fierce, and Caren and I are graceful. Caren, I always knew we were just like twins separated at birth and born to different parents and in different years and stuff...this just proves it!

me and keryn are twinkies!

so i took the middle earth quiz and got the same result as keryn, numenorean or something like that. {So i did not put the clip on here again.}

My middle earth race

Elvish


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla


Yes, the race of the eldest- I guess that part at least is appropriate.
Love you all, LaDale

Re: Middle Earth Race

So here is my race. That was fun. Yeah, I like to think of myself as fierce, courageous, and of course Loyal. But the riding of the horses? I tell you, although industry was extremely frowned upon by Tolkien, I have got to get inventing of other modes of transportation, which are of course environmentally friendly.
Samuel

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?

Graceful? Ummm, sure. Dignified? Well, sometimes. Tragic? Probably not. Oh, well. At least I have long life. Go, Numenoreans!

All right, family, what about you? To take the quiz (and be sure to check back here and tell us all what you turn out to be!):

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

Happy Veteran's Day

Scripture power

Next year's Primary theme is about scriptures--the song "Scripture Power" is even in the 2006 Primary Program. I was thinking about scriptures and Primary in a stake Primary meeting on Sunday. The subject of the meeting was broader, and we had moved on to other subjects, but I found myself evaluating the way I use the scriptures in my teaching. I wasn't really happy with what I found.

I remember in CTR B or Valiant A or some such that my teacher made a big deal of bringing our scriptures. She even made a chart and we put a sticker on it every time we brought them to class. I remember that Nathan Stastney and I tied for the most scriptures, and Sister Barney took both of us to the movies (101 Dalmations) and for ice cream after (Swenson's in the mall). And ever since then (until recently!) I have taken my scriptures to church and even tried to use them there.

I have totally slacked off. I bet I haven't taken my scriptures to church since July. How scandalous! I have reasoned that I can't look up scriptures during sacrament meeting, because of grasping little fingers. I don't use them during the second and third hours of church because I'm usually in and out of classrooms or nursery--unless I'm doing sharing time. And even then when I need kids to read scriptures during sharing time, I print out the needed scriptures and give the pieces of paper to the children. Even when I was teaching Sunday School with Brad, I would print out the lesson's scriptures, because I didn't expect the students to bring their scriptures.

What's wrong with this? Well, nothing, in that it isn't a sin exactly. But I have decided that it is a lost opportunity for me, my kids, and the Primary children. I think that it is important to actually open your scriptures, find the verses, mark them if you want, and follow along (as much as little kids can). There seem to be a lot of benefits:

1. You start making it a habit to take your scriptures to church
2. You learn where things are in the scriptures
3. You get used to finding things quickly
4. You mark scriptures for future readings
5. You actually USE your scriptures instead of just carrying them around

I brought all this up in my Primary presidency meeting on Wednesday, and we talked about it. We are going to encourage our classes to bring their scriptures. And, to set the right example, we are going to start bringing and using our own!
Cross-posted at PonderIt.

Prince Rupert's Drop

Have any of you ever heard of this? (Samuel, you seem the most likely.)

A Prince Rupert's Drop is what occurs when you drop molton glass into water. A long, teardrop/tadpole shaped piece of glass will be formed. The bulb end is strong enough to withstand a strike from a hammer without breaking. But if you so much as scratch the tail end, the entire thing will shatter into powder-sized pieces. Isn't that cool? A video of it can be found here. And an explanation can be found here.

I have no idea why this is so cool. It just is. I would love to actually watch a glassmaker someday. It is extremely fascinating to me.

i'm with LaDale.

I've been telling Samuel for a long time that socks are the perfect gift. I have quite the number of fun socks {socks with cool designs} or those really really soft socks. I absolutely love them, they also wear out too. Living in Arizona so far has been hard because it's too hot to enjoy them.
I'm so glad to hear that there is another sock junkie in the family!

Re: Socks and PJ's

When it comes to clothing, I can't say that I have any special article that I love. Caren can tell you all that I have a hard time matching colors let alone desire a certain something. Unless you count my strong desire to always wear shorts. Heat, cold, night or day, I love wearing shorts. OK. So there is something about clothing that I do love. This is yet another reason I love becoming the 'mad' scientist that I hope to become. The typical work outfit is anything that is comfortable. This might change in the industrial world but at the college level, that is just what it is. Short are fine, especially in Arizona, for any work performed in the lab. I love it.

Pajamas

Specifically, nightgowns. But, really, any kind of nightclothes for me. I can't muster much enthusiasm for socks (sorry, LaDale), but I LOVE pretty, funny, spunky, or soft nightgowns.

Just in case anyone wanted to know.

Socks

I've decided I love socks!

This is about socks, so if you don't like socks please exit out of this blog immediately. I have discovered that I love socks. I didn't use to. I remember as a teenager hating socks because I could never find a match for the one I wanted and then they had to be washed all the time and who wants to wear socks in the heat of Las Vegas? Now, I love socks. I love that you can buy socks with pictures of leaves or with stripes. I love that you can match your clothes or the season or your mood. I love how warm my feet feel at night with socks on. I love finding the kicked off socks is the morning on the side of the bed (where I've trained myself to deposit them even if I'm asleep and kicking them off) and putting them on before getting out of bed on a chilly morning. I was disappointed the other day when I put on a particularly neat pair of socks then found between my pants and my shoes no one but me would see them all day. I was actually quite sad. I almost wanted to walk around in socking feet just so someone would see my socks. In Las Vegas my socks were predominately white, currently white is only one color in a rainbow of color sock drawer. Yes, I actually have a sock drawer (okay, I don't own quite that many. (In truth, the socks must share the space) but the world grows into a better place each morning when I chose my socks for the day. So, the next time you bend to put on a pair of socks, remember that even if they are merely an appendage cover to you, I am out there appreciating them.
(P.s. besides telling you all some useless information about socks, I also wanted to try out Keryn's tutorial. It appears to have worked.)

Mini blog tutorial

I recently showed both LaDale and Telima how to add web links to their blog posts, and I thought I would share it with the rest of you. It's pretty simple--just highlight the text you want to be underlined and linked, and click the world button to the left of the font, size, bold, etc., buttons on the "create post" page in blogger. A small window will pop up, and you just need to type the web site you want in that small window. Done!

If you want to indent text like this:

This text is indented. Isn't it swell?

you have to use a little html language. Don't be scared! It's very, very easy. All you do is type the following at the beginning of the text you want indented:
< blockquote > (but do it without the spaces, or it won't work)
Then type the stuff you want indented. At the end of the text, type:
< / blockquote > (again without the spaces. This closes the indent so that stuff you type after doesn't get indented.)
Hope this helps! If it doesn't make sense, don't blame me. I'm not a computer teacher...oh, wait, I'm married to one!

RE: An eye for an eye

I think that this is my favorite part of that article is this part:

...State university system regent Howard Rosenberg said...Goodman should "use his head for something other than a hat rack."

Have I mentioned that neither of the Spanish Fork City mayoral candidates have ever been lawyers for the mob?

an eye for an eye

Although mom and dad are the only ones still living in Las Vegas, I thought you might be interested in this article. It's about our beloved home town's mayor, or at least about his views on punishing hardened criminals. It's different to say the least. Hey, did I tell you I love Colorado Springs?

Re: Popular Science

Upon looking at #6 on the worst jobs in science, I noticed that #5 was nuclear weapons scientist. The story that followed was one that I had not heard from that point of view. Interesting enough, working at Los Alamos is still a possibility for me inthe future. Although Keryn has #6, it appears that #5 appeals to my liking.

Popular Science

Just an FYI, according to Popular Science, the sixth worst job in science is a volcanologist. Hooray!

New question of the week

So we took a trip to david and amy's for a change of scenery last week for a short stay. Of course we had been discussing harry potter. You have to remember that i bought the harry potter scene it game fuor samuel's and my anniversary. {which for those of you who had not heard we spent the entire evening in the emergency room, because kip had a fever of 105! I was crying my eyes out, i was so worried!} Luckily all is well again.

Anyway in thinking of scary moments and boggarts in such. This new question of the week comes from a joint effort of both of our families.
If you were faced with a boggart, what funny thing/person or animal would you force it to be?

i think i would see Adam dressed in his halloween costume of a turtle doing the CSI dance, that he's got down so well. {thanks to his goofy parents}

Happy Birthday Caren!!

I just wanted to really quick say Happy Birthday to Caren! I hope that you're birthday is going great and that it continues to be great. We love you a lot!

Also, if anyone is interested, Tyler's been taking a Dreamweaver class and so we have a website now (sort of). It's not much yet, but we're working on it. If you care to see it, here's the link: webpub.byu.net/tjswing.