Books

I called Cedar Fort Press and they told me I could sell the books for a reduced price. If you want any they are $6.00 from me instead of $11.99 from their website.

Stand As An Example

If any of you are frequent readers of Jim's Facebook you may have heard that I have a book/calendar with my name on it. I can't really say I wrote it because I just put together what other people have written.

It all started last year when I was looking for a Christmas present for the Young Women in our ward. I have been the Young Women's President for the last 7 years. We had given the girls socks, candy, Cd's, Christmas ornaments and all the other usual presents. It was time for something new.

The girls had used President Hinckley's book "Stand a Little Taller" for our opening exercises. It was a little bit hard for them to understand sometimes so I thought a book like that on their level would be a great gift. I thought I would just whip one up in time for Christmas. I could copy it on colored paper and put the plastic spiral binding on it. It wouldn't be as nice as President Hinckley's book but you can't do too much on a limited budget.

It didn't happen. I started, but it took way longer than I thought it would. The girls got socks again, but they were cute fuzzy ones this time :)

I decided if I gave myself enough time I could get the project done by the next Christmas. This time I started in February. After looking at quotes until my eyes went blurry, I decided that I didn't want some cheesy looking book to give to the girls. I just didn't think they would take it serious. I had looked for something like this in the LDS bookstores before I started and I knew there wasn't anything like it out there. I had this bazaar thought that somebody might just be interested in publishing it. I called and e-mailed Deseret Book but they didn't ever call or e-mail back. (I recently saw a quote book for Young Women published by Deseret Book so that is probably why they were not interested in my book.) I contacted Cedar Fort Press and they actually took me serious and sent me a contract to write the book but they wanted the completed manuscript in 30 days. A negotiated a little bit more time and finally sent them the complete manuscript in the middle of July. I didn't hear back from them so I wasn't sure if they were going to publish it or not. They weren't obligated because I didn't have the manuscript done in time but I was still hoping they would be able to at least print enough books for me to give to my Young Women for Christmas.

Last week I was checking my e-mail and had a message from UPS. I wasn't expecting a package so I thought is was a junk e-mail and almost deleted it. I thought twice and opened it up to find out I was getting an 8 lb. package from Cedar Fort Press. Could it be my book??? I went to their website on-line and there it was under new releases. I hadn't seen their version of the book at all and it was different from mine but I thought it was kind of cute.

The title is "Stand As An Example" so I wanted to have girly shoes on the cover and on the background in the book. I also wanted to have quotes from President Monson and Sister Dalton but Deseret Book has exclusive rights to publish anything from living church leaders. It's not exactly what I dreamed of but I am thankful they published it and I don't have to worry about what I am going to give our Young Women this year for Christmas. Oops, hopefully none of our Young Women read my blog :)

Fall Fun

We had Family Night at Hansen's Pumpkin Patch in Elsinore this week. He went on a "straw ride", Whitney and Jim were both glad it wasn't hay (haaaa-choo). We had a hard time picking just one pumpkin so we got a few extra. Stay tuned for the results of our annual family pumpkin carving contest...

Salina Cross Country Girls Are Going To State

Whitney, Amy and the rest of the North Sevier Girls Cross Country team are going to the 2A State competition on Wednesday, October 21st. They will be running from Sugarhouse Park to Highland High School. The race will start at 12:30 pm. Good luck girls!!!!! You will do great!

Another Race

Amy found another race that she thought would be great for the three of us to run in. The race was from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to the Jordon River Temple. It was five miles long but all down hill so it wasn't too bad. The race started at 7:00 am and we had to check in at 6:30 am. We started running just as the sun was coming up. It was so cool to stand on the top of the hill and look at all three glowing temples at once. That experience alone was worth waking up at 5:00 and running five miles. The race was a fundraiser for the Christmas Box house for abused children so it was for a good cause. Thank you Ang and Mike for picking us up at the end of the race, taking pictures, bringing us water and other treats and supporting us! We love you both!!

I Can't Believe I Did It

BRYCE CANYON RIM RUN

Whitney and Amy have been running on the high school cross country team. When I heard they were going to Bryce Canyon for a race I thought it would be fun to go and watch them. Whitney thought it would be a great idea for me to run with them because the race was not just for high school teams, it was for everybody. I have always had a goal to run in a 5K (3 miles), but this race was 5 miles. We all survived and each one of us took second place in our age division. We are already planning for next year. If anyone would like to join us let us know. Here is the link to the official results if you care to look. For some reason they have Whitney listed as being from Arizona but she still lives with us :).

http://www.runnercard.com/runner/data/1827/2100/Result/Womens_5_Mile_Run.htm

Glenn Beck At the Capital

Glenn Beck At the Capital

I try to stay away from politics but Jim and I had an opprotunity to see Glenn Beck at the state capital. It was a black tie event so I consider it the prom I never went to. We had a great time and Glenn Beck was even interesting even though he did talk about politics. At dinner I sat next to the wife of a man Jim works with. Her name is Annette also. I asked her where she was from and found out she was from Lehi. She graduated with Marvin. Her husband, the guy Jim works with graduated with me. I thought he looked kind of familiar :), but we don't actually remember each other. It is a small world.

Class of 2009

Emily is graduating on Friday, May 29, 2009. The graduation will be held at the North Server High School (Salina) at 8:00 p.m. Anyone who who would like to come is invited.

You are also invited to eat dinner with us at the Salina park at 6:00 p.m. We will be having Subway sandwiches, chips and salads. Please let me know if you are planning to eat with us so I can make sure we have enough food.

Amy also has 8th grade graduation the same day at 9:30 a.m.

Emily is 18!!!

Happy Birthday Emily

I wanted to document the whole day in pictures but Emily didn't cooperate very well. I started the day by waking her up and taking her to breakfast at Denny's but they wouldn't sing to her because it was Valentine's and they were too busy. Happy birthday Emily! We love you!!!

(Just in case you didn't notice my last three blogs are not in chronological order)

Too Much Twilight

Whitney meets Edward.

(She wishes.)

If you can't tell the picture on the cake is Whitney's face.

Happy Birthday Whitney

I don't know how but Whitney talked me into letting her have a birthday party!

This is her friends at Pizza Hut.

Bugsy Malone

Amy and Micheal were in the middle school play. It was really cute. Amy played Tallulah and Micheal played Tootle. Micheal was killed in the third scene but he made a great come back as an angel in the last scene. Amy had to walk into the audience and kiss somebody on the cheek during her solo. The first night she kissed a 10 year old boy, the second night she kissed her swim coach and the third night she kissed Whitney's old boyfriend. A picture of Amy kissing Bugsy Malone was on the front page of the Salina Sun last week. The last time any of our kids made the front page was when Zach kissed a girl in the high school play. Warning to my kids: You don't kiss anybody and not expect the whole town to know about it.

Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan

Matthew is at the Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.

This is a letter we got from him last week:

It is not to bad here. I didn't know that it snows here, but we got about 2'' not to long ago. I almost feel at home here because the weather is about the same and there are mountains all around me. The only difference is that here everyone is in uniform and it is never quiet because of all the jets.