Birthday Bash

I threw G a little birthday party with some of our couple friends and a single friend who came for part of the night. It was quite entertaining trying to eat and play games with 9 people in a 10x10 ft living room.

Here's cute G blowing out his candles.


A few of our party guests...

J and M


C and C


T and B


And of course, us

1/2 Marathon

G ran the Snow Canyon half marathon on Saturday, November 7th. He did really well. He took third place overall and first in his division. His time was 1:15.55.






After the big race, he had to model his winnings. And they were quite the prizes. Check out that amazing hat, and whoo-ee!, look at that little bag, and that gift certificate for a smoothie!... I was so jealous. (Definitely not the prizes or awards you'd think someone would get for running so stinkin' fast.

My Miracle

It happened on September 17, 2009. I am the Young Women President in my ward. This particular ward is unique and different. Up until that point in time, I had 3 active young women and 1 young woman who only came to activities (sometimes she does come to young women on Sundays, but rarely). On the 17th, there was a girl in our ward who was turning 12! Can you imagine my excitement? This one girl could increase our young women by 33% when she comes to church and by 25% when she comes to activities!

As it was her birthday and my inactive girl’s birthday on the 19th, we planned on kidnapping the 12 year old for her birthday and going to Dairy Queen to celebrate her’s and my inactive girl's birthdays. My presidency and three of my four girls met at the church ready to steal the birthday girl away and go celebrate.

After we surprised her and jumped in our cars, we headed off for Dairy Queen.
The four girls piled in my car, my first counselor was going to head home (she wasn’t feeling well), and my second counselor and her son, and my secretary got in another car. 2nd counselor and secretary headed off first, I followed them, and 1st counselor followed me.

We were heading south on 300 West when it happened. We approached the intersection at 200 North. Our stoplight was green. The first car went through and I followed. As I was crossing over 200 North, I saw a van out of the corner of my eye run their red light and come straight toward my car heading west. It was going to t-bone my car on my side. As soon as I saw the van, I hit the brakes, screamed three times, and turned right (west), all simultaneously. It all happened in slow motion. As I turned west, I saw the van continue at me. I just waited for the van to hit me, if not t-bone me, at least hit at a hard angle. Obviously so many thoughts ran through my head. . . I’m going to die along with my inactive girl (she was on my side in the back seat) and the other girls will at least be in the hospital with serious injuries, then, maybe not death but all of us injured in varying degrees, then all of us will have serious whiplash and minor injuries, I don’t have health insurance, three of us are going to die on our birthday or within 2 days of it (my birthday is the 18th), and many more. It seemed like it took a couple seconds for the van to realize that it was going to broad-side us. Finally, the van started turning to its left (south). It seemed like seconds as I veered to the right and watched the van come at us and finally start turning away. I continued to wait for the impact but it never happened. I watched the van come within 1 millimeter of my vehicle (okay, I don’t know how close it came but it looked that if it came any closer, it would have been a hard hit to my door and the front of my car). It was as though there was an invisible barrier between us that would not let us touch.

After we were barely missed, I immediately pulled off the road on 200 North without looking around. The van then pulled off on 300 West. (Another miracle: there weren’t any other cars around for us to hit as we swerved to miss each other and then pull off without looking). I parked the car, told the girls that I thought I might cry and then burst into tears. I have never experienced so much fear or gratitude. How were we not hit? We should have been. There is only one way to explain what happened, the Lord was watching over us. I KNOW that we had angels there protecting us. I honestly believe that angels picked up that van and moved it. That is the only explanation.

Through my tears, I told the girls how blessed we were and that they had better go home that night and pray their little heads off in thanks for our protection. After a few seconds, I looked over at the birthday girl who was sitting next to me and saw tears streaming down her cheeks. I rubbed her back and assured her that we were okay. She just looked at me and asked if she could walk home. I told her that I could take her, but she didn’t want to be in a car with me after we had almost just been killed. By that time, 1st couselor had parked behind us and came to check on us. I asked her to talk to the birthday girl. The driver of the van and his wife then came to check on us. He felt horrible, obviously. He explained how he couldn’t see the stoplight because of the placement of the sun in the sky. He apologized profusely.

My 2nd counselor and secretary had come over to check on us as well. (2nd counselor had seen it happen in her rearview mirror and 1st counselor got a front row seat to the action). 2nd counselor was in disbelief. I told her that I didn’t know how we hadn’t been hit and then I corrected myself and pointed up to Heaven. I then started crying again and she did too. She wrapped her arms around me and told me she loved me.

After seeing what she had, 1st counselor said that her illness had been scared out of her and she wanted to be with us. Birthday girl then jumped in 1st counselor's car and when we had all settled down, we started our journey to Dairy Queen again.

While eating our delicious ice cream, we got to discuss what had just happened. We talked of how there must have been angels there protecting us and how the intersection had opened up to where we didn’t swerve and hit someone else. It was an enjoyable evening once at our destination. I love my girls and presidency! We laughed our heads off and “double dog dared” each other to put mustard, ketchup, salt and pepper on our ice creams.

When we had finished up, we were deciding who the girls should hop in with to get them to their houses when birthday girl stated that she did not want to go with the crazy driver. I hugged her and told her I loved her and that it wasn’t my fault.

Needless to say that when I got home after dropping off a couple of the girls, I knelt down in prayer, sobbed, and thanked my Father in Heaven for watching over me and my girls.

Web 2.0 What does it really mean?

We just saw the video and I really have no idea what it is about. The video really didn't interest me. It's what I have to do to get an A I guess.