Recognize this man?

One of my thrills of the evening at So You Think You Can Dance was when this guy sat in the row in front of me. His name is Louie Van Amstel. He's one of the professional dancers from Dancing with the Stars. I recognized him immediately even though I'm not the hugest fan of that show. He was quite serious throughout the show, only laughing and smiling when Gev was making a fool of himself dressed like a girl. He seemed nice though, allowing people to take pictures of him. I didn't bug him, I pulled this photo off the web. He really does look THIS good in real life...

Laci does this every once in awhile. She gets a wet washcloth and washes the for sale sign and flyers box. I'm not sure why she likes to do this but she seems to enjoy it. She'll also get a wet papertowel and wash the bbq grill too! Funny girl.

Science Expo

I'll quickly getting caught up on some photos I had in my camera....

We took the kids to the science and Engineering Expo put on by the nuclear lab. It was alright. We needed something to do so this fit the bill. The kids were able to try a bunch of different things like experimenting with sound waves, seismographs, electricity, heat vision, smoke, safety, and others. Kind of a nerd fest. I liked it. :) This station with the superheros was about safety. The guys were really into their characters and at the end they did that thing where you run at each other and hit chests while jumping in the air (does that have a name?). They shouted some superhero chant at the same time. It was so funny that I laughed out loud. I think they appreciated that I could see the humor in their efforts. Well, later that day Brigham told me that I had been rude when I laughed at them. Apparently it had been serious business. I told him I was sorry, but I was laughing inside that he had taken them seriously. ahh....childhood.

Heading off to the show

well, I'm off to Utah on my solo journey. Tonight is the So You Think You Can Dance tour at the E-Center. It should be fun! I hope the fact I have every dance number memorized from the show doesn't make it less fun. I have a 5th row ticket to it so I can't imagine it not being amazing. Thank heavens I have navigation in my car or I'd be nervous. One way or another I'll get there and back! Bye!

the dreaded phone call

We've had a contingency offer on a home in S. Ogden for awhile now. It was for a home we really loved. It wasn't perfect but it had some real wow factor, was reasonably priced, and had some of the vintage charm that I love. Anyhow, we got the call today that another offer has come in for that home. This means we only have until noon on Saturday to literally have a miracle (contract on our home) or our contract with them becomes void. Well, I am definately disappointed in our long shot situation. I really loved that home. However, I did have some reservations. The backyard is tiered so it's very picturesque but maybe not totally ideal for a family. There are no sidewalks on that street. Not great for bike riding children or kids possibly walking to bus stops in the winter. I really felt that we could deal with those challenges though. Oh well..... I just have to have faith that if Heavenly Father is going to let that house work out for us then a miracle can happen but if it doesn't then we can rest assured that it was not meant to be.

George Sampson - He beat out Andrew Johnston for the win.

This boy actually won Britains Got Talent. He didn't look impressive at first glance but then when I actually watched him I cheered for him. He's ADORABLE!!! so good... I won't post when they announced the winner. It's a little long, but I can tell you it broke Andrew Johnstons heart to place third. I couldn't imagine anybody topping Andrew's talent, but this guy is really great. I don't think he's necessarily more talented, just more exciting I guess. Who do you like best?

Have you checked out Kiva?

Have you clicked on the Kiva link yet? I was on Kiva just a few minutes ago. Man, it's inspiring. People are on fire today. I watched a loan for a man in Ghana become fully funded in under 4 minutes. I kept hitting the refresh button and was amazed at how quickly the requested loan amount was being fulfilled. As people are lending, their profiles pop up at the bottom at the page. It's so fun to see people from all over the world joining together. Truly inspiring.

High school memories

Adriana tagged me. I've never been tagged before. At least not that I'm aware of. So I'm going to answer all of these high school related questions. Here goes.....

1. What school did you attend? Virgin Valley High School
2. Mascot: Bulldog
3. School colors: green and white
4. Did you have school spirit? Yeah, I think so. I had no vicious feelings towards other schools but I Moapa games were definately some of the main highlights of the year.
5. Drive or take the bus? I walked home or Maggie would be nice enough to take us home. Luckily Maggie was able to drive us until I had my license. Holy cow, I remember walking home in some pretty extreme heat. And let me tell you folks, we did not live close to the school.
6. Did you ever skip? I'm pretty sure I didn't. I was pretty straight laced.
7. Ever have detention? Heck no.
8.What did you think of freshman year? Loved it. We were the first freshman class to begin at the new high school. This school was a huge deal since it was the only one in Mesquite and brand new Clark County school district school buildings put Idaho schools to shame, let me tell you.
9. Was lunchtime fun? not really, spent it in seminary. Brother Anderson was great but it required a lot of chasing in one school period.
10. Did you eat school lunch or bagged lunch? My entire primary and secondary school career consisted of me looking forward to eating school lunch. I didn't realize how wierd that was until I came to Idaho and realized that NOBODY here wants to eat school lunch. I swear it was different in Mesquite back then. EVERYBODY ate school lunch. Even the "coolest" kids stood in line and waited. Must've been a small town thing. Call me wierd, but I loved school lunch to the bitter end.
11.Did you go to all the football games? Yes, all the varsity home games. There was something almost magical about home football games. I loved the atmosphere. Plus, I had to dance at halftime. I loved and hated drill team. It was fun and so lame at the same time. That must've been a small town thing too. I can barely watch us on a home video without being totally embarrased but the town in general enjoyed the school spirit we added.
12. Friends with the cheerleaders? I guess some. I was one at one time or another. I developed a healthy distaste for cheerleading and some of the ditzes in it. whatever...
13. Were you considered popular? I don't know. I was friends with a lot of people cool and uncool, but I definately went through a lot of the typical angst. Gaining friends, some friends turning cold towards me for no apparent reason... In general I had plenty of friends.
14. Involved in any clubs? FHA up through Junior year. Had fun being in the state presidency. I had to follow in Maggie's footsteps. By senior year, I was over it. I think Ms. Stroup was disappointed but I wanted to simplify that year.
15. Favorite subject: hmmm...lunch....ha ha! Man, I don't know....It's been so long..I remember I loved Mr. Vogel's science class.
16. Who was your favorite teacher: Mr. Vogel, Mr. Reese, Penny Whittwer, Mrs. Bennett
17. Least favorite teacher: the typing teacher, what's her name? I've blocked it I think. She was truly a mean person. Seriously she should've been repremanded. I wish I'd had the courage to stand up to her. She deserved it. But we were all scared of her. Except Rochelle Bowler. Ha Ha! she used to make her so mad! Oh, you gotta love Rochelle.
18. Who did you hang out with? Paige Bales my senior year.
19. Were you part of a clique? Geez I hope not. That was certainly not my intention. I really was nice to everyone.
20. Were you dating? occasionaly I suppose. James from Moapa was the closest thing to "dating" someone. I got over that fast and broke his heart. I'm pretty sure he got over it fast too. He was so nice. dang, maybe I should've dated him more. I had a relentless crush on Mario Biasi most of my high school career. It was against my better judgement but I couldn't help it. However he was dating (whats her name) and I couldn't fault him since she was sooo pretty and also one of the nicest people in school.
21. graduation year: 1995
22. Aside from school what were your weekends like? Lame. Mom made me come home by 9pm. I had the strictest curfew of everyone. When I was a senior she let up and I had more freedom.
23. What are your best highschool memories? Seriously, I do not look back at high school with very fond feelings. I think high school was so disappointing for me because I really felt like I was nice to everyone and yet there were enough cliques and closed minded people that I felt held back or something. I think my best memories are of trips I took out of town. The French trip...AWESOME....., Washington D.C. trip.....AWESOME....those were the best.
okay, but I do remember looking at the eclipse in Mr. Bartlett's computer class. He made our class fun. Another: secretly playing with Jacob Jensen in Mr. Vogel's science class. I was a senior and he was probably a freshman. I loved acting like a freshman with him! I liked him more than any of the lame guys in my grade so I actually asked him to be my escort at the drill team review. We had so much fun together. I remember him being a little mean to some uncool kids in class and I would lecture him on being kind to others. I think he listened a little bit.
24.Do you miss being in high school? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
25. Would you do it all again if you could. HECK NOOOOOOOO!

Laci's first day of Preschool

Well, I have no picture. Laci would not let me take one! I have pictures of Brigham doing most everything for the first time and Laci just refuses. I could have forced her I guess, but I didn't. That just didn't seem right either. However, I will probably force her to hold still for 2 seconds next week and I'll take one. It would be wrong not to have a picture I think.
Laci likes school. It's not very far from our house so that wins points with me. Joy school fell through at the end of the summer which was a bit of a relief since I dreaded getting all of that together again with the other moms. I found an a little ad for this school in the classifieds so I was a little nervous about it but I don't think I could've planned for a better school. The teacher is a sweet and energetic mom who is a lot of fun and has a great curriculum. Laci warmed up to her very quickly. She cried a little the first day and then was fine. Now she can't wait to go. One of the other little girls asked her if she would be her friend and Laci was very excited about that. "I have two new friends!" was her remark to me.
The big, big plus for me is that it's three days a week for 2 1/2 hours at a time. Oh yeah baby! I'm loving it! I am using that time to get exercise, finally, sit by myself, and maybe clean a little bit. If the darn house wasn't for sale I would NOT be wasting my free time by cleaning. oh well.