I heard the bells on Christmas day Their old familiar carols play, And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good will to men. I thought how, as the day had come The belfries of all Christendom Had rolled along th' unbroken song Of peace on earth, good will to men. And in despair I bowed my head: "There is no peace on earth," I said, "For hate is strong and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men." Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men." Till, ringing, singing, on its way, The world revolved from night to day, A voice, a chime, a chant sublime Of peace on earth, good will to men! -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow-

Short post today. I just wanted to let you all know who thankful I am for you. I could get really cheesy here but I will spare y'all from that. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and in a world that keeps telling us that what we have isn't enough, just remember that we are all so blessed. Okay I had to get a little cheesy. Later gaters

Seeing family........and cows

In mid-September mom, me and a woman (who shall remain nameless as I quickly found her to be one of the most aggravating and annoying people I have ever had the displeasure to be stuck in a car with) travelled to Bear Lake then on to Rexburg, Idaho. In Bear Lake we visited with my brother Kirk's family. My niece Emily and her son Jackson were there visiting as well. I haven't seen Jackson since he was a few weeks old, so about a year and I believe him to be one of the cutest boys ever

He seemed to enjoy all the attention he was getting and as my nieces Paige, Taylor and I played blocks with him he made sure we all were clapping for him each time he dropped a block in the bucket.

Then it was on to Rexburg, to my great-neice's, Adelaide Sienna Gonazalez, baby blessing. Rexburg was where I attended Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) so it was fun to go back and see how it all had changed and what was the same. When I went it was a two year school and now it's a four year so the town has grown quite a bit. I was able to walk around the campus a bit on Sunday morning so lots of memory's were gone through.

The Family (my brother Kirk made Addie's blessing dress)

Addie and her favorite Great-Aunt Krystal

It was a very long trip home and after drooping off the annoying woman mentioned above, mom and I took a back road home which we were told by annoying woman would get us home faster. It was quite late at night and I was very worried about deer running across the road as there were open fields on either side of us, well there were no deer in sight, however about an hour from home we all of a sudden found the car surrounded by cows. COWS!!!!!! ON THE ROAD!!!!!! I know this will sound crazy but they seriously came out of nowhere. Even to me this sound nuts because if you've ever seen a cow you know they are not very fast and they are not exactly small so how do cows come out of nowhere???!!! I'm just driving along seeing nothing but road then BAM!! Oh, hello Mister Cow so glad to meet you. Thankfully we did not hit one as I imagine it would have been worse to hit on of those than a deer. So now do I not only fear hitting deer around here I get to worry about hitting cows.

Apparently I like much older men

I had an interesting experience at work yesterday that I hoped would give y'all a good laugh.

I was at the drop-off window (where you drop off the prescription written by the doctor) and a gentleman came up who needed a refill, he had never been to the great city that is Cedar City so I welcomed him to it and then, perhaps somewhat out of the blue, informed him that I hoped he was not into night life because nothing happens in this city after dark. I was no longer looking at the gentleman but after a long pause he replied with a "Okay", it was the drawn out kind, usually used when you have no response to what the other person said or you think the other person might be slightly psychotic. After he walked away my co-worker said that he had gotten this freaked out look on his face, and she seemed to think that he thought I was trying to ask him out. I'm sure he was a nice guy but he was probably a good 30 years older than me. So remember my dears always think before you speak

USA! USA! USA! USA!

Yes, I tottally have Olympic fever! Normally I am only interested in Gymnastics but this year I have gotten into Men's Swimming because, as everyone who is reading this should know, Michael Phelps is AMAZING!!!!!!! Well folks I am not going to lie, there has not been a whole lot of excitement here in CC. I have discovered that beauty that is known by the name of James McAvoy (if you have not seen the movie Penelope you should, it is so cute), the last book in the Twilight series came out August 2 and that kept me busy for 3 days and I also found out that (FINALLY!!!) the last book of The Inheritance Trilogy (aka Eragon) is coming out in September. Oh, and The Dark Knight was AWESOME!!! Most of the excitment in my world has been happening away from here; my beautiful great-niece Adelaide Sienna was born on June 17 (she has the privilage of making me a great-aunt for the sixth time)and my adorable great-nephew Jackson turned 1 on July 10 and my sister-in-law Heidi has opened a bookstore in Bear Lake and my nephew Allen will soon be moving up there to help run it.

That now concludes the update from Southern Utah. Hope y'all are well and if not, get better already :)

A couple weeks ago The Dynamic Trio (Mom, Keena and I) took a roadtrip to Panguitch--approximatly 60 miles northeast of Cedar City for those who care-- for the Panguitch Quilt Festival (guess who's idea that was......hint: it was not mine or Keena's). It was really interesting, the amount of time that some of the quilts must have taken makes me feel quite unproductive. We saw Panguitch Lake which I really regret not getting pictures of because it is so blue. The highlight of the road trip to me though was stopping at Cedar Breaks National Monument, which looks a lot like Bryce except on a smaller scale. While I was busy taking up too much space on my SD card, Mom and Keena chatted with a couple from Belgium who, to my great amusement, asked us where the nearest Wal-mart was--everytime they come to the U.S. that is one of their favorite stops. I was excited to talk to them for a few minutes about Germany (such the world traveler that I am) and all of us were invited to come stay with them in Belgium and in return they were invited to exotic Cedar City. I think that we're more likely to take them up on their offer.

This is my favorite picture

Memorial Day Weekend

Over Memorial Day Weekend Mom, Keena and I drove up to Bear Lake where my brother and sister-in-law, hereafter referred to as Kirk and Heidi had a house built while they were in Germany. It was beautiful up there and the weather was awesome, average temp was probably 50. My other brother and his wife (Kerry and Lorana) also came up for a day with two of their kids, Paul (with his wife Stacy and their adorable little girl Lydia) and John. It was a great weekend and those of you who weren't able to make the mini-reunion were greatly missed. As always when I go somewhere new I got picture happy, having our ever increasing family together was a good excuse as well.

A few members of the best family in the world

I think there is something growing in Jodie

Stacy and Lydia Claire

Mom and Kirk

Some of my favorite neices and nephews

(L to R) Paige, Allen, Taylor, John