Unplanned Thanksgiving in UT #2

Dun, Dun, Dun Wednesday 11/24 I worked from 7am-12pm and came home to pick up my already packed sisters. Courtney played the role of dad, puzzle piecing everything into the car, so it fit just right :) Long story short (it gets more and more painful every time.... JK) We got about an hour south, on the road, and I realized my gages weren't registering. My car was stuck in the same gear & not registering anything or shifting. I freaked out, called my dad (again! FYI this already happened once when I was in ID a few weekends prior, and we thought the problem was fixed) so dad told me to drive it back to Prov b4 it got too late and we were stuck in the middle of no where. "Great," I thought. "Another Thanksgiving in UT" So, the mechanic said it was fine to drive it to/from CA and that we'd be safe. All I have to do is fix the clutch in my car, after the trip ($520 W-T-Heck?!?!) So, we get back on the road and I just had a bad feeling, so we turned back around. WOO HOO some road trip. Thanx 4 making the sanwiches, Courtney, and for packing the snacks, girls...

I went into the Chevy Dealership looking like this:

My sisters came down from ID so we could drive down to CA together. We were supposed to be surprising the family, so it was hard to keep it a secret and not tell anyone how much fun we were having...We did a ton of stuff while they were @ my house. It was so much fun, but I definitely exhausted myself! We went up to SLC Friday night, when they got here and saw a MoTab Concert. We, also, went to CPK while we were up there...

Courtney, Aubre and Kelsey
We saw "New Moon" opening weekend, and surprisingly loved it.

Look who we saw @ the Mall....

I wanted to take them for a drive up Alpine Loop, but it was closed, due to all the snow. So, we stopped @ Sundance, instead...

We bought a Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving.

Bubbles did SOMETHING right and fit part of the tree :) in the trunk of my car

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Some of my favorite ornaments:

Twinkling lights in our front yard

I was supposed to drive all my presents home to CA for Thanksgiving, so all my Christmas shopping was done early :) Thank goodness!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I know I did. So much to be thankful for. I mean, at least we had a family to go home to... A lot of people don't even have a family. I'm grateful for my sisters, and that we're able to be friends & not just sisters. I really enjoy their company :) I'm grateful for a great job. Not only a job (with this economy being so bad) but a great job. I have great benefits, a supportive & understanding supervisor, and great co-workers who I'm great friends with. I'm grateful for music and the opportunity to attend and support great musicians. I'm grateful for the church in my life and for trials to make me grow closer to our Savior. I'm grateful for Missionaries and their hard work, to help find out brothers and sisters, and bring them home so we can all be w/our Father for eternity. I'm grateful for family, who is patient, loving and positive w/every sistuation we all go through. I love my family & couldn't do much of anything w/o them.

"You Scare Me" letter

A LETTER FROM A PROCTER AND GAMBLE EXECUTIVE TO THE PRESIDENT.

THE LAST SENTENCE IS THE MOST CHILLING!!!

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America 's true living legends- an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "partnering." Pritchett rose from soap salesman to Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.

AN OPEN LETTER TOPRESIDENT OBAMA...

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America ' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsiblycapitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are bothomnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaugh's, Hannitys, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

This letter was sent to the NY Times but they never acknowledged it. Big surprise! Since it hit the internet, however, it has had over 500,000 hits. Keep it going. All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. It's happening right now.

I-da-ho? You da ho!

Last time I was in Idaho (gen. conf. weekend) this happened:

I went back up to Rexburg, Idaho, to visit my sisters again (last weekend) and this happened:

We went to the Michael Jackson movie "This Is It" (third time for me) SO GOOD! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED :) :) :)

We preordered tickets to see one of our favorite bands, We Shot the Moon & have never been so excited!

Courtney and I had matching shirts :)

Allred opened up for We Shot the Moon. So unbelievably hot & talented! Don't believe me? Check out his stuff & my favorite song: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DeI9oShdoP3U&h=3ea15ac2fe5709b9ec2668f242de8edf

Yes, he's single. He says he's 28 & proudly single. Currently resides in SLC, UT

Um, doing WSTM's oncore, they decided to go back stage and wear women's dresses. Yes, that's right. They were performing in a theatre, so that's where they got the idea to come back out in dresses, but Jason (our fave) decided to wear his favorite tie die onezie & Peru beanie :)

Allred was supposed to get some video, on WSTM's camera, but he was out & about, so he handed the camera to Courtney. We decided to take a picture 4 them 2 remember their favorite fans :) My idea
Kelsey, me, Jonathan Jones, (lead singer) and Courtney

Jonathan kept crowd surfing & thanked everyone kindly, for not grabbing his bottom :-P

Last time I saw WSTM this happened:

Kelsey, me, Jason, (guitarist/our fave) and Courtney

Jason kept spitting water, out of his mouth & squirting it straight up in the air, to make it look like he had more sweat on his face :-P
Last time I saw WSTM This happened:
Kelsey, me, Trevor, (drummer) and Courtney

Trevor kept dropping his drum sticks all night :-P

I got Trevor's, broken, drum stick HAHAHA If you click on the image, to enlarge it, you can see the drum stick has dents in it :) Of course he signed it!

Thanx girls 4 another amazingly fun weekend

One year!

So, my younger brother has been serving in the Philidelphia, PA missoin for a year now :)
Here is his first performed baptism. I cried when I first saw this picture:
Before he entered the MTC there was some running around to be done @ Missionary Mall, so naturally we were able to hang out and have some last minute memories together, such as doing a session in the Salt Lake Temple. What a neat experience, to see my brother in the temple for the first time :) I met them @ their hotel every morning, for breakfast & off to run errands!

Here's our last night together:

We took the Elder to Tucanos. My family had never been there before, so it was nice to see their reaction to all the food! They loved it!

Mom, me, Elder Albert, Austin and dad

Lastly, we said our last goodbyes @ the Provo MTC and I cried like a baby. I promised myself I'd never go back :) He cried when he hugged my mom too & thought it was weird how he was crying, since he never cries...

He was so excited to get out in the mission field & serve. I can, still, hear his eagerness through his letters & enjoy watching him grow.

YAY for having a year left! WE LOVE YOU, ELDER ALBERT!

Halloween 2009 (a little late, sorry)

This year, for Halloween, I had so much fun! I made my regular monthly package, to Elder Albert, by sending him a Costco size box of brownies (8 bags of brownie mix...) and I dumped 150 pieces of chocolate candy (also from Costco) in the package, along with cute, Halloween confetti. I thought he might want to dress up, as an injurred missionary, so I sent some fake blood, and a bandage w/"blood" on it :)

My roommates and I did Mario Kart. I was Princess Peach and this was the back of my car w/o the tale lights. We weren't quite done w/our costumes, in this picture...

One of my favorite Halloween costumes, was the snake charmer. My friend, Spencer was awesome, and talked w/an Indian accent all night. My favorite part, about his costume, was the wig. He got it at DI (in CA also known as Salvation Army or Good Will)...Chris was a tourist. He even had on a Disneyland shirt. Pure classyness!

So, one of the girls in our ward, went as road kill and she blaimed Princess Peach! I felt targeted, as a California driver... Oops!

Did you know we won a costume contest?!?! Heck yeah! Check out my hot pink horn, and those headlights! We had awseome Porche stearing wheels, too :)One of my old roommates, Lyndee, threw an awesome Halloween party, the night before Halloween (Friday, Oct. 30th) and all her roommates were evil villans :) So, maybe I thought this guy was really a dwarf...

Thing One and Thing Two (Ash and Stef) Two awesome people!

Just some cool costumes @ the ward Halloween party, on the actual Halloween evening...

APX sales rep. WHAT?!?! He totally made fun of our company...I love this girl (Maru) She's from Equador and sooo sweet!

Hope everyone had a good Halloween!

It's just a bunch of Hocus Pocus!

HaPpY HaLLoWeeN! I'll post pictures soon of the ever so cute Princess Peach and her Mario Kart, soon. For now, Halloween comes once a year, ghosts and goblins will appear :)

JD Power & Associates Award

http://www.jdpower.com/corporate/news/releases/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2009228

So, our office got the JD Power & Associates Award, again! It takes a lot to get this award, especially when 85% of our customers think we're crap; However, this award prooves we're not and that we have plenty of other customers who are completely happy w/us!

Also, instead of having our huge year end party, we usually have in the fall to welcome home our awesome sales reps. we decided to take the money and put it towards the local hospitals, who could use it more. Here's a clip of the video that was on the news:

YAY for Proudly Protecting Families