Target Practice in Henefer

Traditionally, at about this time each year, my Uncle Mark and his sons would come into town. Then my dad, my brother, two of my uncles and a lot of my cousins (all boys) would go deer hunting up in Henefer. As all of the boys have gotten older, they tend to do their own thing now when it comes to hunting. And the older guys no longer care to stay in a camper all night out in the cold! This year, instead of hunting, they just decided to go target shooting for the day up in Henefer. And, for the first time ever, a couple of girls were alowed to tag along! Me and my cousin Kelsey. Once it finally stopped raining, we had a really fun time. We had a number of different types of targets, including shooting clay pigeons with the shotguns. I have to say that Kurt was probably the best shot, with Kyle a very close second! Hopefully we do this again soon. It was great!

Disneyland and the joys of flying standby!

So about a month ago, my family decided that we wanted to take a quick trip to California to see Disneyland all decorated for Halloween. Our family LOVES Disneyland! I couldn't even guess at how many times we've been. I think that my parents have been at least once a year since they were married. Or if they've missed a year, that's not too common. In fact, they've now been twice this year. Anyways, as Scott and I were growing up, we visited Disney most years as well. But I haven't been back for about 6 years. So this trip was long overdue! Since I work for JetBlue, we can fly standby down to California. Perfect! None of us really had a lot of time that we could take off of work, so we decided on a very fast trip. Down early Thursday morning, spend the day in Disneyland, fly back early Friday morning!

Ahhh...the joys of standby! For three weeks, the flights looked fantastic for us to get on. There were about 50 seats available on the flight, and only 6 people besides my family on the standby list. Plenty of room! 2 days before the flight, about 25 seats had sold on the plane, but that still left 25 and still only 11 people on the standby list! Perfect! Then comes the day before the flight! Every time I checked, things looked worse. More and more people we signing up for standby! By midnight there were over 40 people listed. I was just panicking! We can check in to the flight up to 4 hours before, and the order you get on board goes off of who checks in first. So I knew that it'd be a race to get checked in. Somehow, miracle of miracles, I got all 5 of us checked in fast enough that we could get on! But there is nothing more stressful than being up at 3:30 in the morning, fingers crossed that you can all get on a flight in 4 hours! I didn't want to let my family down by not being able to get us on!

The flight was great. Gotta love those TV's! So, we picked up the rental car, checked in to the hotel, walked to Disneyland, and then it was time for fun! There were pumpkins and Halloween decorations EVERYWHERE! It was so much fun to see!

Here's dad at the entrance to the park. If you look closely you can see that they made Giant pumpkin versions of some of the Characters above the entrance.

The Haunted House was one of the things that I was the most excited for! I love The Nightmare Before Christmas! It was great to see how they had completely changed all of the decorations both inside and out to go along with the movie!

Over in California Adventure, they had an entire area called "Candy Corn Acres". Everything was done with giant candy corns! They had windmills, corn stalks, flowers, and lots more! Candy Corns are one of Scott's favorite goodies, so I had to take a couple of pics of him and Kelli with the Candy Corns. Sorry, one of the pictures is a bit dark.

The rides were all great. I hadn't been on Pirates since they updated it with characters from the movies. And Scott got to go on the Matterhorn. He was pretty insistent that we needed to get on it asap, because it seems to always break down before we get a chance to go on it! We went on the Tower of Terror a couple of times. Even convinced dad to go on it the second time! The park wasn't too busy so we got to ride everything that we wanted to. I think that the longest wait we had was about a half hour. It was a really fun day!

Surprisingly, the best part of the day was probably the fireworks show! I have NEVER seen such a fantastic show! I really wish that I'd had a video camera with me! It was all Disney Villains. They had music and lights and images projected on a big screen. Even fireballs! Also, they lit up the castle with all of these different colored lights that somehow transformed it into looking like a haunted house! It was just such a fantastic quick trip! I think that we need to make a Halloween visit to Disneyland a new tradition!

Halloween at Disneyland

I am really excited! My family is heading out Thursday morning for a quick trip to Disneyland! I haven't been to Disneyland since the Jay Break-Up trip! And that time I was so stressed out that I couldn't even enjoy myself. So, I'm pretty excited. I've never seen Disney all decked out for Halloween, but the rest of my family has. And they say that it's great! Space Mountain and the Haunted House have all been changed for Halloween. The Haunted House is the Nightmare Before Christmas theme! Considering that I've been working for JetBlue for 18 months, it's about time that we finally made time to take a trip to Disneyland. I'll take lots of pictures and post them when we get back!

Book Reviews

So I decided to make a bit of a change to how I do my blog. I am part of an online book club, and I've had several people talk to me about a blog that is strictly book reviews. Well, I don't really want people that I only know online reading about my personal things in my regular blog, so I'm going to start a second blog that's reviews. I'm sure that I will still be talking about books quite a bit on here, but the second blog will only be about books! On that blog, I'm also going to open up the comments section so that anyone can comment, instead of only people that have the right accounts. So, for those of you looking for some good books to read, I hope that you check out my other blog! The link for it is up on the right hand column of the page. For the next few weeks, there will probably be a ton of new posts over there as I write reviews of a lot of my favorite books! I hope that you enjoy it!

3 Important Anniversaries

The next three days are all very important milestones for my family. All for very different reasons, and kinda fun that they are all together!

The 1st Important Day - Tomorrow, October 3rd, is my dad's Birthday! I'll refrain from teasing him about his age, because I'd hate to embarrass him! LOL! Instead, here's a little blast from the past pic of him. This was taken only a couple of years after my parents were married. I've always gotten a kick out of this picture, with his Mr. Tough Guy look. Plus on more than one occasion, I've seen my brother looking the exact same way! Just thought that it was kinda fun!



The 2nd Important Day - The next important day has always been called My Special Day. On October 4th, 1982, when I was 6 months old, I was sealed to my family in the Jordan River Temple. As most of you know, I am adopted. My mom and dad got me when I was 6 days old (on April Fools Day, but that's a whole other story!). I'm not sure what the waiting time is now for adoptions to be finalized, but back then you had to wait 6 months. This first picture is of our family outside of the courtroom that morning. The judge had just declared the adoption finalized! Sorry about the smudge on the picture! Someone had their finger over camera, and this was WAY before digital cameras!



From what I've been told, we practically went straight to the temple after leaving the courtroom. I, of course, don't remember anything about it. But I think that Scott, who was 3 at the time, has a couple of brief memories of it. I'm not sure though, we haven't really talked about it in a number of years! Here's our family, dressed all in white, standing outside of the temple!



The 3rd Important Day - October 5th is Scott and Kelli-Rae's 7th Wedding Anniversary! Wow! 7 years! That still seems crazy to me. Seems like they just barely got married. I am still so happy for them. They are perfect for each other. Scott dated a lot of girls that I really liked before he met Kelli, but none of them really seemed to complete him. I never felt that he seemed completely himself around all of them. The first time that I saw him with Kelli-Rae, I just knew that they would be fantastic together. They are just like two peas in a pod! I still have to laugh at them every time that I see them together. They are just constantly laughing and teasing each other and goofing around. I love it! I think that Kelli-Rae is the best thing that ever happened to Scott. And the great thing is that he'd be the first person to whole heartedly agree with me! This is one of my favorite pictures with Scott and Kelli and my parents.



So, those are the 3 important dates that my family will be celebrating this weekend!

October

I really hate changing the backgrounds on my blog. I'm just not as creative as some people! And I'm not very good at matching up all of the different colors to make something look good. So I figured that I found a background and color layout that I really like, and I had no intention of ever changing it. But I had to change my mind when it came to October. I mean, I have to have a Halloween background! When it comes to decorating, I think that Halloween is probably my favorite holiday. Now hopefully once Halloween is over, I'll be able to get my background back the way that I like it!

On my online book club, someone mentioned the other day that October really should be my favorite month because of the kinds of books I tend to read! I guess that's true. I mean, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, Ghosts, Fairies, Immortal Hunters....hmmmm sounds like a Halloween costume party! lol! So, in honor of Halloween, throughout the month I'll try to share some of my favorite Halloween books, stories, poems, pictures, etc.

So to start things out, here's just a fun little poem:

Halloween Warning

On Halloween Evening, one night in the year,
When ancient graves open, all the ghosts then appear.
We flit through the shadows, we moan and we groan,
We pounce on the mortal, straying too far from home.
So Humans be wary, stay safely within
Lest a Halloween ghost scares you out of your skin!

FYI - The picture at the top of the post is the cover to a book called Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs. I love the covers of her books! They are all so great looking!

4 Years

Wow! Today I hit my 4 year anniversary at my job with the Post Office! That is huge for me! I tend to get jobs, have fun while I'm learning all of the new stuff, get bored doing the same thing every single day, and finally quit after about a year or so. In fact, the second longest that I have held a particular job was with Marriott. I quit 2 years to the day that I was hired. So, I've now officially doubled my old record!

I actually really love my job. There are a few things about it that bug me to death, like the fact that even after 4 years I'm still not considered a full time employee with benefits and everything. But other than that, I couldn't ask for a better place to work. I have a great manager. She's always willing to help me out when I need it and she's great at telling you when she a appreciates a job well done. The other managers that I interact with are really nice too. Plus, the best thing about my job, I basically get paid to read!!! I thought that I would get really bored doing data entry. I mean, all that I do all night is type! Nobody to talk to, no real challenge once you've figured it all out. But, I get to listen to headphones. So, I always listen to audio books! It's great! Basically, it's my dream job! Now let's just keep our fingers crossed that one of these days I can finally become a "career" and get benefits!

Proud to be an American

Today is an anniversary that none of us should every forget. It's a day that changed so many lives forever. I know that I will never forget what I was doing at that time or the feelings that I had later on. I was working for Marriott at the time as a reservations agent. I was on the phone with a lady when she said that they had just announced on the TV that there was a fire in one of the Towers. Well, Marriott had a hotel that was right in between the 2 Towers, and connected them each. So, immediately I pulled up the page where we would get updates on anything happening at any of our hotels. There wasn't anything. I thought that it was a bad thing and was worried about everyone being able to evacuate, but that was as far as my feelings went at that point. I had to work, so didn't really have time to wonder about why the tower was on fire. Then, while I was helping someone make a reservation, she started to kinda freak out. She just kept saying "No, No! It can't be!" Finally, she calmed down enough to tell me that she just watched on the TV as a second plane hit the other tower. I just froze! This obviously wasn't some random event! I got off of that call and quickly went to the break room so that I could watch the coverage on the TV in there. I remember how panicked I felt after the Pentagon was hit! What was going to get hit next? Were we a possible target since the Olympics were only about 5 months away? I ran to the phone and called my dad, who was working in the middle of downtown Salt Lake. I begged him to go home. I was just so scared that we might be next.

The next week was one of the most difficult weeks that I've been through. We started to get phone calls from friends and family members of the employees and guests that were at our hotel. It was the hardest thing telling someone that we had no information about if their loved one made it out or not! And there were several phone calls that I received with people canceling trips because of family members being killed. One of the hardest calls I received was canceling a group booking because of a wedding being called off. The groom, his brother, and his best man were all currently missing!

Since that day, I have never been prouder to be an American. I look at the sacrifice that our troops and their families make on a daily basis in order to keep us safe. It would be impossible to truly express the depth of my gratitude for them all. There is no sacrifice more honorable!

I don't want to go into a political speech, because I know that a lot of my friends have differing opinions than I do. But I just feel like so many people in our country have truly forgotten what that day meant. I think that many have truly forgotten exactly what it is that the men and women in our military are fighting for on a daily basis. I think that the lyrics to Darryl Worley's song, "Have You Forgotten" express my feelings completely. Here are just part of those lyrics:

I hear people saying we don't need this war
I say there's some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground?
We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down
They say we don't realize the mess we're getting in
Before you start your preaching
Let me ask you this my friend.

Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

I've been there with the soldiers
Who've gone away to war
And you can bet that they remember
Just what they're fighting for

Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Some went down like heroes in that Pennsylvania field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
All the loved ones that we lost
And those left to carry on
Don't you tell me not to worry about Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

My love and prayers go out to everyone that lost someone that they love on 9/11 and to all of the soldiers and their families that have fought to keep us safe and free!

Goals

Anyone have any suggestions on how to keep the goals that I set? Sometimes I just really get frustrated with myself! There are a few things in particular that I am working on in my life right now. And time after time, I set these goals for myself. And they are even pretty realistic goals, nothing crazy! But it's like I just keep sabotaging myself!

There will be a particular thing that I shouldn't do. And I know that in order to stick with my goals I shouldn't do it. I sit there and tell myself that I shouldn't. And yet, for some reason, I do it anyways! I start to rationalize it all in my mind, or just tell myself that this once wont hurt and I'll get back on track tomorrow. But then a few days later I'm telling myself the same thing again!!! I just never get anywhere with it all.

Honestly, I've never really been one of those people that ever sets a particular goal. I have never cared for New Year's Resolutions or anything like that. So, I really don't have any experience in making and keeping goals. But I know that things will really improve in my life if I can just reach these goals, so I know that in the long run it will be worth it! Anyone have any help you can give me?

Happy Birthday!

It's my mom's birthday today! Just wanted to wish her a happy one. I told her that she needs to just relax and take it easy all day! And then Scott and Kelli-Rae are coming by tonight and we are all going out to dinner. So that should be fun. Also, I want to wish my best friend Michelle a belated happy birthday. Her's was last week.

As a side note, it seems like my cousin has decided that she is going to get married today too. So congrats to her.