Flashback Friday - Hat Envy

Mike, Roy, Steve, Zac, Amanda, Spencer, Ed, Samantha

Steve's dad collects hats. He has hundreds of them. I have heard tales of Steve and his friends wearing a different hat every day to early morning seminary. This picture was taken 10 years ago when we were in St. Louis for Christmas. Everyone was in Roy's office playing around with the hats.

I Hope They Call Me On A Mission

It was one year ago today that we took my brother Sam to the Missionary Training Center and he became Elder Snow. It is hard to believe that that much time has gone by. He is at his halfway point. One more year and he will be back with us. But for now he serves the Lord and the people in Mexico City. Here are some pictures he has sent since he has been on his mission.

Elder Snow is able to read my blog on his preparation day which is every Monday. If you would like to leave a comment for him here he will be able to see it.

Sam, we love you and miss you and are so proud of you.

You Don't Know Jack?

I just got my vinyl Jack-O-Lantern faces in the mail from Coren. Aubrey and I were so excited we woke Addison up from her nap and ran right out to buy pumpkins for which to apply the vinyl. I love them! Thanks Coren. (And try not to notice that I put the S on upside down and the blood is dripping the wrong direction.)

A Light Bulb Moment

Do you ever wonder why all the light bulbs in your house burn out all at the same time? Seriously. Just this morning I have noticed burned out bulbs in 5 different rooms. They weren't burned out yesterday. What's up with that?

Sorry, it's a slow news day.

Monday Morning Musings

I used to get so mad at my mother because she could not put the right name with the right child. I do the same thing now. Only I am far worse at it. I cannot get my kids names straight. And sometimes I have to go through the whole list to get to the right one. Sometimes after spewing out several names I just point and say "You! Whatever your name is! Get over here!"

Emily had a major meltdown today before school. She woke up just fine but at some point this morning things took a turn for the worst. She was acting like a really angry 13 year old. Then about 10 minutes before school started it turned into an all out crying screaming "I can't go to school today" tantrum.



She went to school. I very nicely held her hand and walked her into her class about 5 minutes after the tardy bell rang. Then I felt bad so I picked her up and brought her home to eat lunch. What a nice mommy I am.

I have been feeling like I have had something in my left eye for over a year now. Then the other day I pulled out a big old long hair. It was nasty. I could feel it, as I was pulling it out of the corner of my eye, being pulled out from behind my eye ball. I told you it was nasty. (someone might want to check on Kristy and make sure she didn't pass out at her computer)

Can you believe it's October already? WOW! It is time to put up the Halloween decorations! Didn't summer just end? It's almost Christmas!

That's about all I have for ya. Things are pretty boring around here at the moment.

Rainy Day Fun

It has been raining all day, except for the time when it was snowing. We were bored sitting around the house so we went bowling. Guess who came in last place? Yep, me. I do have to throw in the fact that my kids were using bumpers and I wasn't. But yeah, they did really good.

DDS (Dumb Dental Stupidity)

Before school started I took the kids to the dentist to get their teeth cleaned. The dentist told me that Zac needed to have 2 fillings done and Emily needed 3. He also said that they each needed 4 sealants done. We made an appointment to come back and they gave me a paper with how much it would cost. It was going to be almost $800 (we don't have dental insurance).

I got home and I remembered that our medical insurance has some type of dental discount with it. I looked it up and sure enough, if we go to certain dentists on their list we get a discount. I looked up the discounts for what my kids needed done and figured I would save about $200. So we cancelled the first appointment we made and scheduled new ones with a dentist on the list.

We went to their new appointment on Tuesday. He looked at the x-rays I brought in and the paper that showed what the other dentist said needed to be done. He looked at the kids teeth and said that he didn't see any cavities and that they each only needed 2 sealants. At first I was like "WOO HOO!!!" 'cause I was so excited about not having to spend a fortune. But then I got really mad at the first dentist we saw for being such and idiot and I asked this dentist why he thought the other one would have told us we needed to have so much work done. He gave me some mumbo jumbo answer and then he said "They are fine until their next check up in 6 months." And I suddenly went, "HUMMMPH?".

What did he mean, "They will be fine until their next check up in 6 months."???? Well our appointments were his last ones for the day and it was 5:30 by the time he finished (our appointment was at 3:00 and it too 2 1/2 hours to do 4 sealants which should take about 15 minutes each). As we were standing at the front desk to pay, he was leaving the office for the day.

So I am really mad right now, and I don't know who to be mad at. Should I be mad at the first dentist because he was trying to do unnecessary procedures on my young children to make an extra buck? Or should I be mad at the second dentist because maybe my kids cavities were really small and he was in a hurry to go home and figured they would be fine until their next visit?

There is a local TV news person who people call when they feel like they are getting cheated. He helps them get to the bottom of it. I am debating weather or not to call him. I don't know, what do you think?

Do you see why I have an EXTREME DISLIKE for dentists???

Flashback Friday - Carriage Ride

Sam, Lauren, Destiney, Scott, Kristy, Zac, Emily, Allyson and Steve

The Snow's were in Utah visiting. Scott and Kristy were still going to BYU Idaho and had come down to visit. We all went to eat at PF Chang's (mmmm....I could use some lettuce wraps right about now) and then took a carriage ride around downtown Salt Lake.

Sam, This Post Is For You!

Apparently Zac told everyone at school today that we have Halo 3 at our house. Because right about dinner time tonight half the neighborhood boys showed up. But never fear, there was plenty of food and violence to go around. They played for about an hour and then Steve and Levi (our neighbor across the street) who up to that point had shown a great deal of restraint, kicked them off. They are playing right now and I am sure the bloodshed will last long into the night.

Something To Sink Your Teeth Into

"About three things I was absolutely certain.

First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him--- and I didn't know how dominant that part might be--- that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."

This is a must read. I just finished it this morning around 1 am. I had never heard of this book until my cousins were telling me about it when we were at a bridal shower. They went on and on about it. I went out to breakfast with a friend of mine a few days later and asked her if she had ever heard of it. She said when she was at girls camp everyone there was reading it. Well my dear mother bought it and started reading it. I saw it in her car and said "AHHH! I want to read that!" and she ever so graciously gave up her copy to me. I started it last Thursday but only got about 3 pages into it. I took it to the doctors office with me on Friday and everyone that saw it stopped me and told me how great it was. I took it to the hospital with me that same day and got the same response. I was excited to read it but really didn't have time that day.

I didn't start reading it again until Saturday and it was so good. I even posted about how I couldn't stop reading it on Monday morning. Then I got to the middle part which I have to admit was a little over the top mushy teenage romance and even though I still enjoyed reading it, it took me a few days to get past that part. Well last I was so exhausted I fell into bed ready to sleep but I thought, I will just read a few pages before I fall asleep. Well HELLO! All the sudden we moved past mushy gushy and by dang if I couldn't stop reading no matter how tired I was. I stayed up 'till 1:00 and finished the last 150 pages.

It is excellent. There are 2 more books in the series that are already published and two more on their way. And they are making a movie about the first book.

It is written for teenagers. It is by an LDS woman although it is not an LDS book. I love it because it is a thrilling love story and it is rated PG. And there are no naughty words. The idea for the book started with a very vivid dream the author, Stephenie Meyer, had one night. This is what she says:

"I know the exact date that I began writing Twilight, because it was also the first day of swim lessons for my kids. So I can say with certainty that it all started on June 2, 2003. Up to this point, I had not written anything besides a few chapters (of other stories) that I never got very far on, and nothing at all since the birth of my first son, six years earlier.
I woke up (on that June 2nd) from a very vivid dream. In my dream, two people were having an intense conversation in a meadow in the woods. One of these people was just your average girl. The other person was fantastically beautiful, sparkly, and a vampire. They were discussing the difficulties inherent in the facts that A) they were falling in love with each other while B) the vampire was particularly attracted to the scent of her blood, and was having a difficult time restraining himself from killing her immediately. " Click here to be linked to her website.

I just started the next book in the series (thanks again mommy!). I highly recommend it. If you are like me and the sappy stuff gets on your nerves, just know that it is worth it to stick it out. And for those of you (you know who I'm talkin' about) who thrive on the sap.....ENJOY!

Oh, and FYI. Her third book that just came out, Eclipse, is the book that knocked the last Harry Potter Book out of the #1 best seller spot!