Mission Statement

"Try a little harder to fortify someone so powerfully that whatever temptations the devils of hell throw at her or him, they will be able to withstand and thus truly in that moment be free from evil."
~Jeffrey R. Holland

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Thinking Ahead...

Dear Santa... next year can you bring me Willie Lahaye?

Monday, December 29, 2008

3 Cuties

This is the cutest thing ever! Bubba, Miley, and Keili were laughing so hard because Mya (puppy) was jumping on the window and they thought she was trying to get in. I had to snap a shot because they were so stinkin cute pressed up against this door at Mom's. This was on Christmas Day.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The re-incarnated roll...

So... I went to this party on Satruday night with a bunch of old friends. One of my friends wife had made cinnamon rolls. They were really hard and she had baked them on wax paper, which in turn made the paper part of the roll. He had me wait while he tried to pry the paper from the back of the roll, so I could eat one on my way home. I was like 'uh... sure... I'll eat that on the way home- yeah and Santa is a skinny man with saskwatches for elves'. But... I patiently waited for him to get as much of the wax paper off as he could. He then proceeded to wrap it in a paper towel. Once I got out to my car I placed it on the passenger seat. Well, I forgot about it and left it there the rest of the weekend. Yesterday I went to the store to get some things and it was snowing. When I got back out to my car is was covered in snow. My window scraper was in the very back of the rodeo. I got in and thought that I could just use my wipers to scrape the windows. As I backed out I couldn't see very well, and the better half of me said, " Tahnee... you should scrape your windows so you don't hit someone". So... I listened. As put the car in park and thought about having to climb in the bak seat to get the scraper, I turned my head and noticed the cinnamon roll. The laziness set in and ... I think the picture says the rest.

The moral of the story goes something like this... Don't judge a book by it's cover. Not all cinnamon rolls are made to be eaten, and... one man's junk is another mans treasure. Over cook a cinnamon roll, wrap it in a napkin, and leave it in your car for two days and you have a handy dandy home remedy for an amazing snow scraper.

Or maybe just... hey... be lazy like Tahnee and recycle your food. Practice re-incarnation on your food. This cinnamon roll died and came back as an ice scraper.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A Bad Case of the Water Droplets...

Okay, so here's the thing... As all of you know, it is bitter cold outside. Okay, back up the boat...I can't let it go with that description. It feels as though little droplets of water have penetrated deep into my skin, housing themselves into the inner hollow of my bones and when I walk outside, they decide to freeze, thus making me literally an Ice Princess! And... you can call me Ice Princess, because I look like this...
Where do these said water droplets come from, you ask?
You see... it looks like this outside...
But, the water heater at my house hasn't been working ALL BLASTED WEEK!!! I have taken 4 cold showers this week!!! This is where the water droplets have come from.






Do I look Sick and Tired?
GOOD!!!

And tomorrow, I get to do it again!!!

Monday, December 15, 2008

My Favorite Nativity, and Worth Viewing FAV's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icilgwdHiZg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0SAFkr0iew

Sunday, December 14, 2008

I heard the bells on Christmas day


I Decided to share some Christmas information that most of us probably don't know, but that inspires me. This song is my favorite hymn to sing in church...
As with any composition that touches the heart of the hearer, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" flowed from the experience of Longfellow-- involving the tragic death of his wife Fanny and the crippling injury of his son Charles from war wounds.

Tragedy struck both the nation and the Longfellow family in 1861. Confederate Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard fired the opening salvos of the American Civil War on April 12th, and Fanny Longfellow was fatally burned in an accident in the library of Craigie House on July 10th.
The day before the accident, Fanny Longfellow recorded in her journal: "We are all sighing for the good sea breeze instead of this stifling land one filled with dust. Poor Allegra is very droopy with heat, and Edie has to get her hair in a net to free her neck from the weight." After trimming some of seven year old Edith's beautiful curls, Fanny decided to preserve the clippings in sealing wax. Melting a bar of sealing wax with a candle, a few drops fell unnoticed upon her dress. The longed for sea breeze gusted through the window, igniting the light material of Fanny's dress-- immediately wrapping her in flames. In her attempt to protect Edith and Allegra, she ran to Henry's study in the next room, where Henry frantically attempted to extinguish the flames with a nearby, but undersized throw rug. Failing to stop the fire with the rug, he tried to smother the flames by throwing his arms around Frances-- severely burning his face, arms, and hands. Fanny Longfellow died the next morning. Too ill from his burns and grief, Henry did not attend her funeral. (Incidentally, the trademark full beard of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow arose from his inability to shave after this tragedy.)

The first Christmas after Fanny's death, Longfellow wrote,
"How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." A year after the incident, he wrote, "I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace." Longfellow's journal entry for December 25th 1862 reads: "'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me." Almost a year later, Longfellow received word that his oldest son Charles, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, had been severely wounded with a bullet passing under his shoulder blades and taking off one of the spinal processes. The Christmas of 1863 was silent in Longfellow's journal. Finally, on Christmas Day of 1864, he wrote the words of the poem, "Christmas Bells." The reelection of Abraham Lincoln or the possible end of the terrible war may have been the occasion for the poem. Lt. Charles Longfellow did not die that Christmas, but lived. So, contrary to popular belief, the occasion of writing that much loved Christmas carol was not due to Charles' death. Longfellow's Christmas bells loudly proclaimed, "God is not dead." Even more, the bells announced, "Nor doth He sleep."God's Truth, Power, and Justice are affirmed, when Longfellow wrote: "The wrong shall fail, the right prevail." (Daniel 9:24). The message that the Living God is a God of Peace is proclaimed in the close of the carol: "Of peace on Earth, good will to men."

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day was set to music by composer John Baptiste Calkin in 1872. An updated arrangement was written in 1950 by Johnny Marks who also wrote Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
"Christmas Bells"
(The original poem, complete with all seven stanzas)

"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!


And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of 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!


Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
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!"

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Annual Christmas Tree Hunt...

Tracy, Shaina, Chip (aka the pest), Dylan, Dad, and Mom. Nic and Dave and their family were also here, but my Camera died and I couldn't get pictures of everyone. OOPS!!!
Bubba or Ralphie? I can't tell...



Like father like son. Rustin certainly learned from the best. I tried to take Sarah's picture but my Camera battery died and I couldn't but she was extremely bundled up as well. LOL!

Once upon a time there was a Rock, a Roller, and a Riah...

So... at the annual christmas tree hunt, Sariah came up to Sarah and said, "Mom... there's a rock in my shoe". Sarah couldn't help her right then get it out, so I asked her if she wanted me to get it out. I lifted her up on the tail gate and took her boot off. I looked in the boot and laughed and then looked at Sariah and said... "do you wanna know what's in your boot?" She nodded.
I stuck my finger in and pulled this out...
That silly roller wanted to come along too!!!

Where was my dang rock to crawl under...

So... I should have posted these a while ago. I went to see the Twilight movie twice the weekend it was out. Like an idiot I forgot to take a picture of my and the people I went with. I went with my amazing friend Jen Bell the night it premiered. It was A BLAST!!! Then the next night I went with my amazing mom and sisters (except Sarah and Misty couldn't join us...tear!) I made these twilight shirts for Jen and I to wear when we went to watch the movie.


The bottom picture is actually really funny, and embarrasing. This is me sitting in the theatre on Saturday night waiting for my sisters and Mom. I turned the flash off on my camera and decided to take a picture of the theatre. Well... the flash was NOT off, and I snapped the picture. Let's just say that my shock was not the most elevated. Everyone moaned and turned around and looked at the idiot with the camera. Who even knows why she (I) was taking the picture? It's because I like to take stupid pictures and put them on my blog. I apologized and wished I had a rock to crawl under. If it had been a week night, I would have yelled... "isn't it a school night anyway...", but then here I am a 31 year old that is dang excited about a movie about 19 year olds and wishing that a certain 19 year old vampire would spin his car around to rescue me in Port Angeles. Hmmmm....