Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you have a chance to spend it with friends and family who you love. I am so thankful for everything in my life. I have a wonderful husband who is so generous and caring. He always put others before himself. I couldn't ask for a better man in my life. I am also thankful to have such wonderful in-laws. I was always afraid that I would be one of those people who have a hard time with my in-laws. But I was truly blessed with another wonderful mom and dad, brother and sisters as well as niece and nephews. They are my family and I love them so much. They have done so much to help make me feel welcome in their lives. I am also very grateful to my own family. We have our quirks and our kinks. But I love my mom and dad and all my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews. They are so great. I get to see my niece Alexis tonight who comes home from her mission. She served in New York. I am also grateful for all those people who became my friends throughout my life. You hold a special place in my heart. I never forget someone who has touched my life. Thanks you everyone for your love, kindness, and friendship. I know I don't say it enough but I love all of you and I am very thankful to have/had you in my life.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!

Cone heads, Movies and Twilight.

This weekend was so much fun...I wish I could re live it. Mostly Sat night though. :) Fri after I got home from Work James and I went to pick up the animals we had this schedule down as to what we were going to do. 5:30 pick up animals and take them home then head out to Brigham city to drop off some Mary Kay stuff for Katie and then head over to Nikki's house for a fun movie night with her and the kids. Well it started out right. At 5:30 we were looking at a huge line of people to pick up their pets from the Big Fix...but no Big Fix people. James said it had been like that earlier that morning too and the big fix people were 45 min late. I wouldn't have minded standing outside waiting but when it was as cold as that it made being patient a little hard. But we got through it ok. Rosko was having a very hard time. He kept trying to sit or lay down in the Jeep and kept hurting himself and yipping. we got him home and gave him and the cat their medicine and then tried to coax him to lay down on this towel we put down for him...but he wouldn't have it.I was really excited to see Rosko in a Elizabethan collar. But my happiness didn't last long when I saw how sad he seemed. He is doing a lot better now though and it is once again funny to watch him in that collar. :) Then we made a very quick trip up to Brigham City to drop off some Mary Kay stuff in Katie's mailbox, then we raced down to Nikki's for that movie night. We had a lot of fun with that. We thought it would be fun to have an 80's movie night. We brought "The Princess Bride" and "Goonies". We watched Goonies, and Gavin was hooked. He wouldn't take his eyes off the TV. If there was a part that scared him he would cuddle up to me and just make noises. mostly oo's and ahh's. :) He didn't really like Sloth and first he thought he was really scary. I have never seen a 2 year old be glued to a show that wasn't a cartoon. But he loved it. Abby didn't get to enjoy it as much. Half way through the movie we noticed that she was really quiet. She wasn't feeling very well. We still had a lot of fun. We didn't get around to watching "The Princess Bride" but we left it so that the kids could see it some other time. Sat James had to work. He got a second job at Mervyn's so he had to be there from 9-6. I got a lot of cleaning done and some laundry and I got to see James at lunch time before I left to go to Salt Lake. I got to Dawn's house a little earlier then I expected. Btu we got a chance to chat for awhile. We went over to her friend Jess's house to meet all the other ladies who would be going to the show with us then we headed over to the theater to meet more people. When everyone had arrived the tickets were given out. One of the ladies made a comment to Jenn saying that as much as she wanted to see this movie she was a little sad that Jess had made the reservations over the BYU-Utah game. (For those of you who don't know the BYU Utah game is the BIGGEST rivalry game of the season which I will talk about later.) Twilight was AWESOME!!!! If you haven't seen it yet go see it. It's great! I really want to go see it again. I wanted to go into this movie with an open mind and I didn't want to compare it to the book. I was very tempted to read twilight again before I went and saw the movie but changed my mind when I remembered how disappointed I was when I did that with the 3rd Harry Potter movie. So I wasn't going to compare. They did a great job with Twilight. When we got out of the movie Dawn and I started to talking to these two girls who had just gotten out of the movie too that were very upset with the movie. But after talking to them we realized that they were obsessed with the books, in a non-healthy way obsessed. Anyway I really loved it and encourage all you Twilight fans to go see the movie..even if you thought the books were an ok read but nothing to great...go see the movie. Soap box away and that enough about Twilight. :p Sunday was great too. I was able to have a fairly good lesson with our Sunday School class and I was also able to go up early to mom and dad's to get mom's opinion on some stuff I want to sell on ebay and get some of that done. I love our family dinners that we have. It's so fun to get together and play games and visit with everyone. I got to hold little Ethan for awhile too. he's such a cute little guy. It made me want a baby real bad. But for now I have my many nieces and nephews to tide me over. :) Well that was our fun weekend, I felt bad for James cause he had to work all weekend but he doesn't have to work again till Fri night this week.

I'm a Great Aunt....Again. :p

Wow the title just made me feel really old. :p Well as you have guessed my niece had her cute little baby boy. He was born on Nov 18th at 4:06. He was 19 inches long, and 6lbs 4 oz's. He is such a cute little guy. He has A LOT of curly brown hair and I couldn't tell if he looks more like Craig or Erika. I went and visited them in the hospital yesterday and Erika was telling me he had a pretty rough day so he slept a lot of the time I was there. But not for the whole time. I got to see his cute little eyes. I love new born babies they are so sweet and precious. My other niece Brieanna was there with her husband and daughter Aliesha. It was so cute to watch Aleisha just sit and look at Zach then occasionally point at him and look at either Brie or Greg. She was gabbin away too. :) Erika told me earlier before they came that she (Aleisha) is walking now and sure enough she was cruisin all around that hospital room. :p it was nice to go see Erika, Craig and their cute new baby. Congratulations Erika and Craig!!! The pictures I took are on my camera phone...so they don't look that great. But I left the camera in the car and I wanted a picture. :p

Out with the Old - In with the New

Some exciting things have been happening at James' work that he is really excited about...except for one thing...but I'll talk about that a little more later. For those who don't know James is a operator on two different machines at the LDS Printing Division. His machine is the one that put together all the non-leather bound scriptures...mostly The Books of Mormon that the missionary's get to give out. Also anything that isn't stitched together... Sunday school manuals etc. Anyway the whole machine that does this is called the Binder, but for the past year people were starting to call it the blunder. It was always breaking down and causing more trouble then it was worth. So after many meetings with the Printing Divsion managers/supervisors and then them taking it to President Monson. They decided to buy a new machine and sell the old one. So for the past 3 weeks James has been helping to take apart the old machine, clean up the air and paint the walls to get ready for the new machine. This is the front of the gatherer where it takes the individual signatures (pages) of the book and puts them in the correct order.

This is the ramp the books go on after they have been put together, a cover glued on and gone through the cooling tower. these lead to the trimmers where the books are cut to the right size and then they come out to be inspected by quality control workers. then off to James' machine. :)

The big grey machine the blue one and they grey one behind it that you cant see very well these are the machines that James operated. After the books went through quality they were sent to James' machine. this is the machine that he thinks it was really stupid for them to get rid of. This machine is (was) called the evolvo. What it does is when the books come to this machine they are stacked in two rows of 6... I think. Anyway they go into this machine and the machine forms the box around the books then sends it to the palletizer (big grey machine) where it is put on a pallet gets wrapped up and sent to the warehouse to be shipped out. There is only one of these machines ever made...and they just sold it. James is sad cause he really like this machine. It was very impressive. Well the other thing he's not to happy about is that he may have to go to Ecuador to train the people who bought the machine. (I think he's secretly happy...just scared) We'll find out more about that later though.

The Bindery floor looked a lot different without the Binder. It looks so...big. :) The blue on the walls is going to be the color of the new machine so they painted the walls for contrast. They even decorated for the upcoming rivalry game between BYU and Utah. :p This week the new machine will be arriving and for the next month they will be putting it together and getting it ready for the new year. The hope to get it up and running by Jan if not before. When they do if you would like to see the new Binder in action as well as all the other machine that help print and make different books, magazine, pamphlets, etc. for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Please let us know and we would be happy to take you on a tour. It is very impressive to see.

James is...

BROWN

You are usually very straight-forward. You have a passive personality and enjoy nurturing those around you. You are very grounded and prefer to keep things simple and honest.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

Purple!?!

VIOLET

You surround yourself with art and music and are constantly driven to express yourself. You often daydream. You prefer honesty in your relationships and believe strongly in your personal morals.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

I saw this test on the Comstock family blog and thought it would be fun to take. it took me by surprise. I thought I was a blue. (cause the first time I took it I was but when I went back and took it again to post it it said I was purple. huh.) It's a lot of fun, feel free to click on the website to find out what your color is.

Relaxing Weekend?

Well unlike the title this weekend wasn't all to relaxing. :p this lady that i work with came in really sick all last week and gave me whatever it was she had. Grrrr! So Friday I called in sick and literally laid down on the couch and watched nothing but episodes of friends. I got through the last two disc's of season 8. hee hee. James came home an hour early and went to the store to get me some yummy soups and medicines (not so yummy) before he had to leave. I don't know if I posted about this but James has been made an assistant instructor at his Tae Kwon Do school. He teaches classes there every Tuesdays and Thursday nights. Well Friday was the annual testing and James assured me that all he was going to be doing was judging. If he was going to be doing anything else it was probably only going to be his form. I still wanted to go though Something just kept telling me to try and go cause I would really want to be there. Of course I didn't listen and when James came home later that night. I looked up to see this "I'm sorry" expression on his face which I thought was weird...till I say the broken cinder block in his hand. Grrr! I guess Mr. Shaw asked James to do a demonstration of a knife hand and when he went to the front Mr. Shaw gave him a cinder block slab to break. James thought I was mad at him...but in all honesty I was mad at the lady at work who gave me this horrid cold...flu...sickness... whatever it is. I know it's silly and childish But I like to be at these things to support James and I wasn't able to be there to support him OR to see the break he did. I bet it looked cool. Well Sat was the same James had testing and I once again thought about going and James once again told me I wouldn't be missing anything. HA yeah right. Anyway so once again I was on the couch watching movies and the first two disc of the 9th season of Friends as well as dozing in and out of sleep. The second half of the testing went a REALLY long time. usually the second part of testing only goes to about 1 maybe 2 o clock. So you can see why i was worried when I woke up at 5:40 and James was not home yet. I thought that I would give him till 6 and then I was going to call down to the school. Earlier that day we had had a stupid tift (it wasn't a fight just a tift. :) ) about money so I was thinking I hope he's still not mad at me and doesn't want to come home, or thinks that I am still mad at him and doesn't want to come home. Then I though that maybe he went and applied for a second job and they hired him on the spot and he didn't call and tell me. Crazy things I know. I called the school a few times and didn't get an answer (cause I wasn't calling the right number. Your head gets really fuzzy when your sick. :p) Well James came home a little after 6 and said that the test went that long. I couldn't believe it. I cant remember all the detail of the test cause my head is still fuzzy but it sounded like things were done very differently this time. James said he was really sore and bruised and his hand still hurt from the break he did on Friday. So we decided to go get a 5 buck pizza and a red box movie and have a nice relaxing date night. I was sick still on Sun and even considered calling in sick on Mon. The moral of this story is... Take LOTS of vitamin c so you don't get whatever junk is going around. cause it is NOT fun

An Era of Change

Well the election has come and gone and we now have a new President. The only thing that I could think of to best describe this is the title that I put for this post. Whether it was going to be Obama or McCain I think this phrase is well fitting. We are at the beginning of a new era and personally I am really interested and a little excited for what the next four years are going to bring us. I am also scared. This is the first Presidential election that I have been able to participate for. It was a great experience that I really enjoyed and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I went to the polls last night to vote with book in hand and ipod on standby in my purse. :p But I walked right in got my little card to vote, cast my ballot and walked out. I didn't even need to open my book at all. What a great opportunity we have to be able to vote and help to elect who we want as our leaders. Sometimes it may not turn out the way we want it to and sometimes it does. But just given the opportunity to have a say in the matter is wonderful. Especially as woman.It has been awhile since Aug 26, 1920 when woman won the long battle of wanting to have their voice heard and to be considered equals to men. But we still enjoy the benefits of the battle they raged so long ago. What a great country we live in to be able to let us have these freedoms that we sometimes take for granted. Although I voted for someone else. I wish the best for Barack Obama, as he takes his place as our new President. May God always bless America.

Pumpkin seeds are fun to eat.

I love pumpkin seeds. When I was a little girl mom use to save the seeds from the pumpkins we carved and cook them. When I got a little older though she stopped doing that. So with all the pumpkin carving that we have been doing I decided to save the seeds and try and cook them myself. I am proud to report that I succeeded. :) I am really excited about this. My first batch I just salted and they turned out ok..I should have dried them a little more but they are still yummy. the second batch I made turned out the best. I decided to experiment and before I baked them I put garlic powder on them. They turned out the best. In fact we had a good cup and a half of the garlic seeds and they are almost gone. It has been so exciting learning how to do this. I actually called my mother in law and asked her when the farmers markets up there were going to be throwing the pumpkins out so I could go and get more pumpkins to cook more seeds..and maybe even try a few pumpkin recipes. :)

Halloween Weekend

We had a really great Halloween weekend. Friday was work as usual except for the change of cloths. :) Dawn and I did the whole "I'll dress up of you dress up." so we came to work in our costumes. I didn't hear about many other people who were going to be dressing up...So I told the guys at the help desk (late Thurs afternoon) that if they dressed up then I would bake them a cake. They really wanted the cake I told them if they dressed up that this week I would bring them a cake. So Henry was the Mac and Elder Hawkins (our service missionary) was a PC, and Jason put on a Mountain Dew shirt and said he was a can of Mountain Dew. :) I thought it was cute...not a huge effort on the costumes but you have to give them credit. So thier cake is (as "we speak") in the fridge waiting for their shift to start. More people dressed up then what I thought. Dawn was the 50's girl I was a witch...except I forgot my hat so whenever anyone asked what I was I put my fingers in a triangle above my head and told them I was a witch. They would laugh and say really and I said "yeah I'm a hat less witch." Which I later told Dawn sounded like I was saying that I was a heartless wench. :p Sean kept teasing me that I was a gospel singer. Sarah was a cat, Sister Campbell (another service missionary) was a devil. Professor Hunsaker was a nerdy professor and I didn't quite see what Professor Merkely was. they said that more people on the 6th floor had costumes too. It was a fun day at work. We actually had a nice relaxing Halloween night too. After those party's we needed a break. So Halloween night we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas and gave out candy. Our friend Dawn showed up and we all went up to James' parents house for some more pumpkin carving and scary movies. It was nice to just relax and enjoy the holiday and being around family and friends. It was also a lot of fun seeing all the kids who came to the house and all their fun costumes.