Christmas Fun!

We had a great Christmas day. James and I were able to sleep in which is a great thing. :) (we usually have to get up at 5:00 to get into work by 7 and 8. So any chance we have to sleep in is welcomed.) When we did get up James grabbed Dodgers stocking and I grabbed Rosko's and we "showed" them what they got Dodger got more food and treats then Rosko did since the Dodger spends most of his time outside. He did get a little cat toy that I realized made us feel like we were fishing. :) It's a fether and ball that lights up when the cat swats at it and it's on the end of a long string...hence the fishing :p. Rosko seemed more excited then Dodger. he got some rawhide bones so he'll hopefully chew on those rather then our toes, socks, blankets, shoes, etc. He also got some new toys. both animals got a new food and water dish. Which is more for our poor Tupperware dishes then anything. :p Then James and I pulled out our gifts to each other and unwrapped those. Which there is actually a funny story that goes a long with this. The first present I opened from him was a small box and I was thinking (being a woman and all) small box usually means jewelry.
So I opened it and TADA it was an adapter. I tried to sound pleased and not show my disappointment and confusion...which I don't think I succeeded. Well after we were all done and just sitting there looking at the various things we got, (which did include a bracelet :D) James finally said to me "So...do you want the thing that goes with the adapter?" I kinda looked at him with this blank expression which he kinda smiled and asked if I really thought he would just get me an adapter. He went upstairs and brought down this huge keyboard. :) I couldn't believe it. I was so shocked, and the first thing that came out of my mouth was (looking back) pretty stupid actually. I was just sitting there smiling and I looked at James and said "now maybe I can find my own "sound". For those of you who know us and know how much we enjoy watching friends will know what "the sound" is. I kinda feel like an idiot now saying that but James thought it was funny. Well the rest of the day was spent at Nikki's house. Everyone was there Mom and Dad Armstrong Bob, Lisa and even Travis and Lisa. (Justin's brother and his wife) The whole day was really fun. We opened gifts, ate food, played with the kids and their new toys, sat and talked, played games. But one of the funniest things was when Nate asked me if I could make his transformer bumble bee into a car. K this is Bumble Bee...an actual picture of the toy that Nate got. Now first looking at this toy I thought it was pretty impressive. It has a gun that actually shoots this little plastic orange thing. it had about 3 to 4 different buttons that made different sounds and played some of the music that was actually in the movie, plus a lot of other neat things. well about 30 to 45 minutes into trying to make this thing into a car I looked up and realized that mom was working on the leader Optimus Prime who turned into a semi.

This is him. Then I looked over at the kitchen table where James was working on one of the bad guys that turned into a scorpion and his brother Bob was working on the one that turned into a tank, then they switched. :p and they finally got those but mom and I were still sruggling with optimus and bumble. finally mom gave up and gave it to James. so we worked on those for awhile longer then Nikki found the directions on how to do it. optimus had 13 steps and bumble had 26. Nikki laughed and told me that knowing little things like this I probably missed step 3 pr something. I agreed and continued to work on this stupid toy that would make these sounds for no apparent reason.

finally I carefully looked over every step and found that I did miss a step that made all the difference and...it was STEP 3! i couldn't believe it. Nikki and I had a good laugh and after I undid all the progression i had made so that bumble was back to a full robot instead of half a car I started over and it took me about 5 -10 min to get that stupid robot into a car. I was so happy... so was Nate. he finally got his car. James had finished optimus quite awhile before me. Wow I couldnt believe how long it took for us to get all those put back together. I really hope when James and I have kids that transformers wont be popular again. I can never remember the transformers my brother had to ever be that hard to transform. ph well. :p It's a fun story to tell..and Nate was sure happy to get them into cars. Of course later that night Nate brought back bumble to me and asked if I could make him back into a robot...I handed it to James. :)

Overall we had a great Christmas. With lots of fun and lots of snow. :) I hope everyone had a great Christmas and got to spend it with the ones you love.

Merry Christmas to all

Well it's Christmas Eve and the snow is really coming down which makes us very excited. cause it means we will have a white Christmas. As I've been on the Internet I found a website called NORAD tracks Santa and I was able to show my niece and nephew where Santa is. I seemed more excited then they did and Jams thinks I'm crazy...literally. But I think it's neat we were never able to watch Santa's progression when I was a kid except for the occasional weather mans report on the nightly news. I am getting a little excited for Christmas which is a big deal for me cause as I have gotten older I haven't felt excited for Christmas and it's been harder for me to get into the Christmas Spirit. I hope everyone can feel even a little of the excitement and Christmas spirit that we felt as kids. So to all who read this.
HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Dont Shoot the receptionist

I have been working as a receptionist for LDSBC for almost a year now and I absolutely love my job. I have a great boss, I have friends here and generally the atmosphere here is great. But sometimes (like today) I get call after call of angry people who wants to yell at someone and lucky me I'm the first person they get so they decided I'm the one they want to yell at. hmmm. I don't understand why people feel they have to get angry at the person they first talk to when I have absolutely no control over what they are yelling at me about. Some people actually swear at me...which at that point I am suppose to hang up if they wont let me explain that I have the right to hang up on them if they swear at me. If they really get upset and literally start to yell I have the opportunity as well to hang up on them again I have to try and explain but if I cant then...click. My nice calls are about 1 every 5 calls and sometimes not even that. I have decided that I need a vacation. I had a lady get mad at me cause she dialed the wrong number. My advice to everyone who reads this. Before you get mad at someone stop and think who that person might be. What kind of day they may be having, and just who they are in general. be kind to receptionists they go through A LOT.

Mary Kay

Well after months and months of bugging my friend Katie with questions, stories, etc. I fianally did it. Last Thursday I attended a Mary Kay meeting with Katie. I met her sales director Renee. (who I talked with on the phone and asked her loads of questions too) She's way nice. We listened to this lady speak who has been doing Mary Kay for years and has made quite a bit of money ( over a million) Her name is Mona and is I remember correctly she's a national sales director...but I'm not sure if thats right. (I'm still new at this) Anyway I was sitting there listening to her and I had a "duh" moment. It just all made sense. I cant really explain it very well it just made sense...so I signed up. :) I've gotten quite a few people already who have said they want to order something. So I am pretty excited....Terrified of course but excited as well. :)

Women

As women we tend to get down on ourselves as far as looks. I have done it a million times and every time I get into one of those "I feel fat & ugly" moods. That is the time when I need most to turn to my inner strengths. When we hear guys go "well...she has a great personality." What's wrong with that? I find my personality a great source of comfort quite a lot when I don't feel so pretty on the outside. I know your probably thinking "man cant she write something worth while on this blog, first harry potter and now this." There is a point to it though. I have often heard this one poem and as I was searching through some of my old e-mails I found it again and it always makes me smile. So this is what I wanted to share with you....

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness..
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone..
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed,
revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand,
You will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands;
one for helping yourself,
and the other for helping others.

So if always remember that everyone of us is a princess to the most high king. We have great worth and great value to ourselves, our family and our friends. No matter who you are....

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!!

"Good Looks Catch the Eye, But a Good Personality Catches the Heart...You Blessed With BOTH!" -Anonymous-

Harry Potter

For those of you who don't know, I do admit that I am a huge Harry Potter fan. Yes I am one of those crazy people who stood in line till midnight just to buy the book. For the 7th book my kind husband came with me. He said he had fun but sometime I wonder if he just thinks I'm a freak. :p Anyway My niece Abby and her mom Nikki has recently started through the books and is flying through them. Each time her and her mom finish a book they watch the movie. Well we had the chance to watch the 3rd movie with them last Sun and I noticed again that in the scene where Harry is falling from his broom stick at the quidditch match when the dementors come. there's a spot where just before it fades out. Dumbeldore is casting a spell to slow him down in the background there is a silhouette that looks like the Salt Lake Temple. It's crazy. I pointed it out to James and he thought it did to. it's funny. Anyway that's my little spill for the day. :) I'll have something better to write about next time.

Happy Thanksgiving

We wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We hope everyone has a great time this holiday season and gets to spend Thanksgiving with friends and family. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Tae Kwon Dizzle

Mr. Shaw had his first annual testing at his school and it went really well. He started them out with a warm up that looked pretty hard. there were people that looked like they wanted to collapse. I know I would have wanted to. :) After that he called them out by the number they were going to be under and had them line up on the edge of the floor. Then he had people come up and he would tell them a form that he wanted to do in the Korean name and they had to know what form he was talking about. James did 3 forms and one of those was chun ji or the white belt form. That's the form I'm working on. :) After everyone did their forms he had everyone do one steps then he had different demonstrations. He had James come up and he had 5 people form a circle around him and he gave them a number. When he called out that number he wanted them to attack James. James did really well at blocking and then attacking back. Mr Shaw had them go through it twice. the second time he told the 5 people to go as fast as they could. It was neat to see James in action. :)
After that Mr. Shaw bowed them out and told them to come back at 9:30 the next day. (sat) So Saturday morning came and I went down with James and it started out the same they were bowed in and did a warm up. Then they started with board breaks. James did an awesome job here too but he did hurt his hand. He did 3 breaks a spin crescent kick, a punch and a flying side kick. The only board he didn't break was the punch and that's when he broke his hand. But he was still really stoked cause that was the first time he had done a flying side kick. He couldn't believe he broke through the board. :) I had to leave after that to attend a baby shower in Salt Lake but James said that after they had a 10 min break to get water and stuff then he had them line up and do sparring.
Usually with the tests that James had had in the past he has had to wait for 4 to 5 days before he found out his test results. but he said that right after class, Mr. Shaw and the judges went in the back and talked about everyone and their performances for awhile then came back and told them their results. James got a 4.6 out of 5 which is a fail. But he's very happy about it cause they told him the things he needs to work on and the area's he needs to improve on. So he's not bummed that he failed his review. I am very proud of him. :) If I can I'll try and post the some of the video of him. If I can't get that posted here Mr. Shaw has it posted on youtube under Mike Shaw's tae kwon do. I haven't seen it yet so I don't know how much he has there. Anyway Keep Smiling! :)

New Addition

This is our little Puppy Rosko.He's a Malte'zu or something like that. It's a new breed of dog, they took a pure bred Maltese and bred it with a pure bred

Shih Tzu. He was born Sept 11, 2007 and we bought him Nov 1. :) We have been looking for a small dog for some time now, and we thought that we'd get one as soon as we sold our Condo and found a new house. But then our friend (Jim) said that him and his wife breed little dogs and they had a dog that was pregnant. We thought that when they came we might get one. We werent quite sure. Well the puppies came and we went to go see them and they were so cute and tiny. There was a little runt that we fell in love with. It was a little girl. they actually had to hand feed her cause she was so tiny she couldnt fight her way through her brothers and sister to get to the food. So when Jim called and said they were ready to be sold, he told us that the little girl had died a few weeks earlier. So we went to go look at the rest of the puppies. We found this little guy that they had named Turk from the Disney movie Tarzan at first we wernt sure if we wanted one. Then we started to play with his little brother and actually were thinking about getting him. Then this little guy came in and started to play with us and after awhile he got tired and he climbed into my lap and fell asleep. well that did it we were hooked. So I thought that we could ask Jim if he would hold him for us, but James surprised me and said he wanted to take him that night. and thus the sleepless nights begin. :) The first night he did awesome, the second night he still did good but then after that I guess he decided he didnt like sleeping alone. We have not yet got a kennel for him so everynight before we go to bed we take Rosko for a walk and try and get him tired so that he'll sleep asll night. He does really well actually and he really like's going for walks most of the nights. Somenights he doesnt like it to much cause it's to cold. So we try and make it as short as possible. He's been doing really well. We recently discovered his favorite cuddly spot. In the hood of James's hoodie. Last Sunday we took him to a family dinner with James's family to show him off. and he sat in that hood for about an hour or so. H eloved it he just curled right up and fell asleep. James doesnt like it to much after awhile cause of the weight pulling on the hood tends to choke him. We love our new little guy, sometimes not so much when he wakes us up at three in the morning. :) but we do love him and are very excited to have him. Our cat is slowly adjusting to him. Yesterday Dodger let Rosko walk up to him and Dodger sat on a lower step with Rosko on the landing and they just laid there for awhile. He's a fun little guy.

Poverty in the Philippines

This is really a sad sight. As I was checking my e-mail today, this picture caught my attention. As sad as it is this was a common seine in my beloved city of Manila in the Philippines. As missionaries we would pass little kids and people like this all the time. As LDS missionaries we weren't allowed to give out money due to the little money we ourselves had and that we didn't want to "buy" people or give a false sense that if you listen to us we'll give you money or anything like that. We wanted people to feel the spirit and love of the Lord through his scriptures and teaching and know for themselves that it was true.Anyways since we couldn't give money we would always have some kinda of food with us. Some kind of package of crackers, cookies, ube candy, etc. And if we ever had a chance to eat out somewhere and had extras we would always take it no matter how big or little it was so we could give it to these people. I love the Philippines very much. I have many friends there that I consider very dear to me. The people are nice and generous and the culture is amazing. If you ever get the chance to visit I would strongly recommend it. But back to the subject. I said earlier that this picture caught me attention when I went to check my e-mail. So I read the article and this is what it said. "Two children beg on an pedestrian overpass in Manila October 16, 2007. The Philippines will mark International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with an attempt on October 17 to set a Guinness World Record for the most number of people standing up against poverty." REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo (PHILIPPINES)
"A girl begging on an overpass looks up as a man drops a coin into her cup in Manila October 16, 2007. The Philippines will mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty with an attempt on October 17 to set a Guinness World Record for the most number of people standing up against poverty." REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo (PHILIPPINES)

I couldn't believe it. It made me think that maybe this will draw enough attention to try and put a stop to the poverty over there. Which I understand can take a long time but I am really hoping that this might bring up some awareness to the current situation to at least try and put a greater effort into helping. There's a great Campaign that I think Bono from the band U2 started called the ONE campaign. they have done some outstanding things and are helping people to be more aware of things going on in the world. Especially with the issue of Poverty. I commend those people who try and make this world a better place. Little by little something can be done. This is something that just really hit close to home with me. If you read all of this. Thank you for humoring me on my little soapbox. :)

Patience

Well another day here at LDS Business College and I have decided that with a great job like the one I have here you can also find some things that bother you. When faced with these things (usually on the days that seem the hardest and the days you just really don't want to deal with it) it is required to have a little more patience then usual which can be rather difficult. especially if this thing is a co-worker who (in my mind) seems to say and do things just to bug me. I cant quite figure it out. James and I have tried to figure out why some of these things occur at work and how to resolve them so when they come around again it'll be easier to deal with. But we have yet to succeed. Patience I guess is the only key. Also just remembering the teachings of the savior and continue to strive to be like him. Listening to hymns when you get in one of these moods always helps to. :) Anyway this isn't my main topic I just wanted to vent a little.