Personality

Mr. personality that is. Markus has always had this great little personality and an amazing sense of humor. This picture was when he was two years old and you can already see it in his eye, that little twinkle. He says the cutest things as well. And he has this contagious laugh. I remember one time when he was laughing, he made me laugh so hard I cried. I feel like such a lucky mom to have this little boy in my life.

When I was pregnant with him, I had an ultrasound done and the tech told me that my baby, could possibly have kidney problems. There were some unusual measurements I guess. I cried so much and worried for two months until the next ultrasound when they realized his kidneys were fine. I was so relieved and thought about for the first time what a miracle it is to have healthy babies. I had some premature labor with him as well and was put on bed rest for a day or so and was told not to do step aerobics for the rest of my pregnancy. I had a really fast labor with him, I woke up around 3 a.m. and was feeling some contractions. But I wasn't sure that I was really in labor because with Morgen & Max my water had broken so I knew for sure. Anyways, I waited until about 4 to go to the hospital where they hooked me up to the monitors to see if I was indeed in labor. They usually do that for an hour before admitting you I guess. When I had been there 20 minutes I started pushing. The nurse came and rushed me across the hall to the delivery room. I pushed for 2 hours and still hadn't had my baby. My Dr. said that it was posterior and that is why it was taking so long. I was exhausted and it was excruciating pain. Not like with my other two births were it hurt for a minute while I was pushing and then it was over. This lasted so much longer and was so intense. Then I heard my Dr. say that the babies heart tones didn't sound good and that they were going to have to do something soon. I freaked out when I heard that I pushed so hard I felt like I was going to scream in fact I may have but I don't really remember and then I finally heard my baby crying. I was so overcome with joy that it was here safe I just started bawling like a baby myself. I heard my Dr. saying it was a boy and when he put him in my arms all wet and squishy and looking in my eyes, all I could say was, "I love you little guy." Ben was so upset that he said he didn't ever want to put me through that again and that is when I knew we were done having kids.

Anyways, enough about childbirth. I am feeling enough pain right now in my shoulder as it is. I haven't been taking Motrin this week. It has been feeling better but it is so achy tonight. Probably due to the therapy they did on it today. I am going to go try and get some sleep. <3

Happy

I have physical therapy again today and I am so excited for my arm to keep getting better. I wanted to run so bad last night, but it was just hurting too much. Plus we went to see Batman and it was a long movie.

I thought I would post a photo of when Max was two today. He was such a cute little guy and he still is such a cutie, he is just growing up so fast. He would usually do what ever I asked him to do and he especially loved to help put his clothes in the hamper. In fact he would cry if he couldn't do it by himself. He loved to play wherever he went and was always happy, doing whatever it was he was doing. So easy going and happy. He still has that kind of attitude most of the time. Just happy to be here playing. I am so lucky to be his mom.

I am teaching classes today later and also going to a baby shower tonight. I also need to get groceries some time today as well. Later. :)

It's a miracle

I can't believe it, I could actually brush my hair this morning with my right hand! I am so excited. I am going to go try and put a shirt on, I think I can do it all by myself. Woo-hoo!

Markus is sitting on my lap wiggling because he needs to go potty. He is reading what I am typing while I am writing it. I knew he knew how to read the little primer books from Challenger, but now he can read just about anything. Morgen had a fun day yesterday. While I was gone teaching one of my students at the rink, he had a friend come over to play WOW with him. Then they went over to the park and swam in the river. He has never done that before and I wonder what he will think of next. Last night he was reading Fablehaven 3, and wanted to go get some tots. (He had already eaten a huge plate of spaghetti.) Then when he came home, he went outside and played night games, with all of his Lacrosse gear on. He decided that he didn't want to go to the LAX camp this week, so maybe he will still get some training in. Who knows? He was always the most mischievous little boy. I heard that when children are toddlers they often behave like they will when they are teenagers. So if that is true, then I may be in big trouble since Morgen turns 13 next week. I found this photo while I was doing his school pictures last week. He is two in it and you can just see that little look in his eye of mischief.



I love that little boy so much, I just can't believe he is growing up so fast. I was so afraid of having more kids after having Morgen, partly because he was so busy, but mostly because I loved him so much I couldn't imagine loving another child as much. As soon as I had Max I knew that I could love another child as much as I loved him and in a different way. Isn't that amazing, that you can love your kids for who they are individually? I think it is anyways.

Music

I was listening to some music this morning and Markus came in and started dancing and jumping on the lovesac.
He is such a good dancer.
He likes to jump around too!
I was hurting when I went in for my physical therapy appointment today. She said today when I was crying that it is temporary. So I will try to remember that, really.

Want s'more?

Max and my niece Sierra have always had this special connection since he was born. She is so cute with him.

My nephew Kiel came up from BYU last night with his girlfriend, Emily. He has been home from his mission to Nashville for a year now. He works for the church in Orem doing OIT.
Lara's other son Tanner is such a great kid and always palling around with Morgen.
My sister Lara and her boyfriend Todd invited us up the canyon to have s'mores with them.
Tanner was playing with Morgen's laser pointer pretending it was a light saber.
My arm is feeling much better and healing so quickly it is amazing how fast your body can heal.

Sleep

Markus was riding his bike today with these crazy glasses on, what a nut!



Since I am not sleeping (what else is new?!) I thought I would blog. Morgen has his friend Austin over and they are playing a loud video game. He and Austin have been friends since preschool. They meet at Challenger when they were four years old. I should post a picture out here of them. I saw one the other day when I was doing Morgen's school photos. Which by the way is all finished. I put all the pages in the binders today and it filled up two big 12 x 12 binders. Markus is caught up like I mentioned before and I have Max's preschool photos finished. Just 4 more grades to go for him and then I can rest on that little project until the school year begins again.

Austin invited Morgen to go with him today to this place that has all of these trampolines inside. Basically, it is just a bunch of trampolines all close together. He had a great time. Then they decided to have a sleep over at our house afterwards. His dad is a really great guy that always takes his kids to do fun things when ever he has them. He has been divorced for quite a few years. I think it was 2004 or something like that if I remember correctly. Anyways, he is a great dad and a nice guy. They usually invite Morgen to go with them when they do things.

Biking

January will be here before you know it! Just a friendly reminder to go outside and enjoy the hot weather.

I did not go on the tri club ride this morning since the P.T. said I shouldn't bike for awhile. Ben did, he went to bed early last night and left at 6:30 this morning. He came back a little while ago and went for a run.

I am feeling so much better today, I think my shoulder will be better in no time.

Colorful

I took a color personality test that I heard about on Karen's blog and this is what it came up with:

Blue Violet

Blue colors your world with emotion. You seldom jump right in, preferring to stand back and watch people and situations closely. Blue people are calm, but can also spiral into sadness. With so much emotion, tears of happiness, sadness, anger, or frustration are quite common.

Pioneer Day

Happy days of '47.

I had turned on the parade this morning to watch as I was getting ready, making up my bed, etc. and Markus came in and asked what I was watching. When I told him he said, "Oh, I didn't know it was pioneer day." So we were just chatting and he is always such a cute little talker, saying the most random things. We played I spy in my room for awhile and then the Rachel Ray cooking show came on, I wasn't really watching it just listening as I was putting my make-up on. Rachel said something about her guest to be on the show, that she was "one of the most beautiful women in the world." Markus was watching it and when Cindy Crawford came on he said:

"She's not the most beautiful woman in the world, you are."

I said, "Thanks buddy you are so nice."

Then he said, " You are beautiful when you are naked. You are beautiful in your church clothes. You are beautiful in your normal clothes and you look cute in your running clothes."

He totally made my day!!! (I don't usually run around naked though, so I am not sure how he would know about that one!) :) :)

I went in to the P.T. today and got some really good news from her as well. She said that I didn't damage my rotator cuff, which is good. She said that I have really strong Delt's that probably protected my shoulder from getting messed up more than it is. I have severe bruising in my joint so I need to stay off the bike until I can build up the strength in it again, but that I can still run. And swim again once the road rash heals. She said even that looked good and was healing nicely. I just need to keep letting it breathe and putting ointment on it. She hooked me up to these "Stims", which are electronic simulators and basically give you an awesome deep tissue message. She put some heat on my neck, which is really messed up too she said, and ice on my shoulder, then turned out the lights and I just relaxed like that for 15 minutes. I feel so much better now. It is amazing. I am going in again on Monday for some exercises that I need to do to strengthen my shoulder again.

So after I finish making dinner I am going to watch the fireworks down at liberty park with the boys. Should be fun!

Got skin?

I am sure that my arm will start feeling better soon. I just had to peel my shirt off, due to my road rash getting stuck to the fabric and now it is bleeding again. Oh, well. What can I do? I will just have to wear a tank top again today like I did yesterday. Except that I am going to teach classes and that might be a little cold in the rink. Should be interesting tying my skates with my finger and shoulder the way they are. Wish me luck!

Ouch!

That is all I have to say today. When I woke up this morning I could NOT lift up my arm at all. I took some motrin and it is feeling better now, but really limited in motion. My muscles in my shoulder just won't move. Argh! The road rash doesn't hurt at all yet, just inside. Have you ever tried to clean house with a shoulder you can't move on your right and a broken finger on your left? Well, let me tell you, it ain't easy!!! :) It has taken me all morning just to get a few things done. I haven't even tried to take a shower yet. I am going to take Morgen to guitar later and then I am going to the store for Monet. She needs some popsicles and stuff for Aria who had knee surgery today. Monet can't leave her alone for 24 hours after the surgery and Kailey is gone to camp this week. So I am going out there. I better start getting ready now, it might take me 2 hours just to get my shirt over my head! Laters.

Inevitable

It is inevitable I guess that if you ride a bike, you are going to crash, eventually. Well, today was my day. I was crusing down 45th (going 42 mph) on the way home from my bike ride when a car decided to turn right. No signal or anything, I did my best to avoid hitting the dang girl in the mazda talking on her cell phone, but I still crashed. Luckily not in to the car, just the road. I probably would have been okay but there just happened to be another cyclist on his mountain bike who was trying to avoid getting hit by her as well. He swerved into me and when he hit me I went right into the asphalt. I thought I was okay at first but when I tried to lift up my bike I realized I wasn't, I couldn't lift my arm up. A lady that had stopped when she saw what had happened called 911 and told me that she saw the lady that cut us off and she had just pulled into get her waxing done. Apparently she didn't even see what she had done. So the girl that called the paramedics told the police what had happened and they gave the crazy Mazda girl a ticket when she came out of her appointment. I didn't want to ride in the ambulance (too expensive) so I called Ben and he was so nice to come and get me and my poor scratched up bike. The derailleur is totally scratched up. I cracked my helmet and wrecked my sunglasses as well. After I came home and took a shower, I realized when I couldn't wash my hair that I probably needed to go get some x-rays. Turns out that nothing is broken except for maybe my finger, but they bandaged up all my road rash and gave me a tetanus shot. I need to go in for physical therapy on my shoulder, the P.A. said at instacare and take some ibuprofen. Expensive lesson to learn.

Bucket List

I watched the movie Bucket List tonight and I was very sad. Some how I thought it would be a more uplifting movie. I don't know why I thought it would be, since I knew it was about things that the two men wanted to do before they died, I just didn't realize it was going to show them dying. Anyways, I guess it did have a good message in the end, it just made me sad. I have somethings on my bucket list, I probably should add some more worthwhile or meaningful things though.

Loving what is...

Markus, Dillon & Max in the fountains at Gateway
They loved it and kept laughing when the water would shoot up!
Max & Dillon kept trying to get the jet to squirt dangerous places!
What a great day to be in the water.. when it was so hot outside.
Aria's singing group 'Pink Lemonade' performing at the fountain stage.
My niece Aria is aptly named..she has a beautiful voice just like her mom!
The boys weren't too excited about going to see Aria sing, but since we had just left the pool, they were in their swimsuits and were able to go in the fountains, so I think they ended up having a great time.
Kailey and her dad, Dave who flew in from Atlanta for a visit with his girls.
Kailey, Aria and my sister Monet.

We have had swimming days the past few days. We went to the outdoor pool on Thursday with Kailey, then to the pool by Monet's house yesterday with her and the outdoor pool again today. So fun. Monet and I had the best visit while I was at her pool with her and talked about some things that I have been thinking about lately. She really wants me to go to Vegas with her next month and I told her that Ben doesn't want me to. He says that he trusts me just not her! But it is not like I am going to go out dancing or something, we would just hang out by the pool I am sure and probably see a show or something. Anyways, she talked to Ben while I was on my way home and when I came home he said that he thought I should go. That if you love something, you should set it free, or something like that. Which is the completely opposite thing than he was saying on Monday. I don't know what he is thinking for real. So maybe I will go, I will wait and see.

Morgen had a scout overnight up at the stake property. Ben left for the Scofield Triathlon after the Wunderli reception last night. I gave Tanya and Sammie bears a ride home with me and then when we came home Max wanted his friend to spend the night. So today we had a great time, first we went rollerblading, then played ghost in the graveyard at the cemetery, then had a home run derby at the park until we got so hot we were melting. Then we decided that the pool looked pretty dang good, so we went home, had lunch and came back to swim until it was time for Aria's recital. I read a book while I was there entitled 'Loving What Is'. At first I was a little skeptical but as I skimmed through it I ended up really understanding somethings that have been causing me some confusion for awhile. So I think it makes sense, although some of the theories are a bit different, sometimes different is good. The author refers to going through this rethinking process she calls "The Work". Which basically is when you take what you think about something and turn it around to mean something new. It is all about what you THINK.

Ben came home in time to go and he would have been 3rd at the tri if he hadn't taken the wrong route on the bike. He was kind of bummed about that I think, but I think he did a great job for his first Olympic tri. Next time he will probably look at the map of the course though! He is icing his knee to get ready to train again on Monday. What dedication.

What's in a name?

I was just reading on my friend's blog about the meaning of her name and her personality traits that supposedly go along with it. So I looked mine up and this is what it says:

derived from Celtic, meaning 'Sword'

It's difficult to know what you think, to be aware of your veritable sentiments or your intentions. One can only judge you through your acts. You've a taste for the secret and the impression of having more power on others when you're conscious of their nature or their desires without being discovered yourself.
You hate letting yourself be dominated. You can effortlessly foil the maneuvers of those who try to subjugate you. Your intuition helps you in most cases. If you realize that someone has tried to trifle with you, your vengeance will be terrible. Confidence is a value you appreciate; to work with you or to be in contact with you incite to frankness.
You're a sensitive individual despite your carapace of indifference, egoism, or revolt which you take upon yourself. The subconscious play a very important role in the making of your personality. This subconscious is fraught with whirlpools, which is sometimes as violent as those of a stormy sea, and you can be the first one to suffer from them.
You yield with difficulty to the rules that are imposed on you. To demand your docility almost amounts to demanding the impossible. To want to submit you by force is to seek cruel clashes and to set off an animosity that's likely to transform itself into revenge. In this merciless struggle, you can make use of uncommon willpower, of a resistance that time cannot affect, and above all of an innate predisposition for waging a war of attrition.
There indisputably exists in you a vital force that assures the most spectacular rebirths. But on the other hand you're also the seat of undeniable self-destructive tendencies. Therefore, you must think of strengthening your morale and realize that your imagination may so exaggeratedly darken the prognosis as to create an actual psychosis.
Lucid, willful, you can remain cool-headed in the most difficult moments. But if you're able to take risks in order to get out of the most desperate situations, you should not systematically try your luck and come close to precipices as you are often prone to do it.
Sometimes you experience outbursts of mysticism. But here also, you prefer action to contemplation. If spiritual research attracts you, you'll most of the time remain discreet about it.

"If you always do what you've always done, then you'll always be who you've always been." Anonymous Quote

Kailey's Blog

Today we went swimming with my niece Kailey. She is such a cute girl and just started her own blog. Check it out:

www.kaileyspolkadotjournal.blogspot.com

She is excited to share it.

The Alchemist

I read this book for a Humanities class back in the day and I quite enjoyed it.

What an amazing and profound book! This book is all about following your dreams and the obstacles that arise along the way. One precept that is repeated throughout the book is that the universe conspires to help us achieve our dreams. Having that perspective transforms apparent misfortune into the path towards our dreams. Think about it. How many times when something "bad" happens do we give up, become complacent, or settle for comfort and ease? On the other hand, if you analyze what has happened from the perspective that it was supposed to happen to bring you closer to your dreams, you come away from the experience with motivation and direction.

On many occasions, the author eludes to the various things in life that distract us from our dreams, and perhaps these things come about when we don't have the perspective I mentioned above. For example, the author references complacency and the opinions of others as obstacles to our self-fulfillment. Its amazing how much self-fulfillment we sacrifice for the sake of comfort. But if comfort is so easy, can't we always go back to it if absolutely necessary? However, the opportunity to do and achieve what you really want in life only comes once. It reminds me of that scene in October Sky when Homer Hickam goes back into the mineshaft, and as he travels downward, he looks up and sees the sky (and his dreams) disappear.

What is it that causes us to go back into the mineshaft? Does the perspective that the universe is conspiring to help you reach dreams really work? What other thoughts or perspectives keep you from going back into the mineshaft?

Family History Site

I was just doing some research on my family history and it turns out Moroni Fuller actually had two sisters and two brothers die in winter quarters along with his parents. So he still had six siblings alive who presumably helped him across the plains when he was six years old. Interesting, my mom always told me he was the only one to survive, good to know.

Molly is whining to get out upstairs. She was in time out in her crate for trying to eat a bird in the backyard. I saw her trying to get it and I yelled at her through the kitchen window, but by the time I was able to run outside, she had already killed the poor little bird. Bad dog.

Tending Roses

I have been trying to take care of my rose bushes today. They are not doing so hot, none of my flowers are actually. I think that it has just been too hot. But I am trying to revive them. A few of them looked good so I cut them to put in a vase on my table. I love this vase, it is from Prague and it is one of my most prized possessions.

I am going for a bike ride in a little while and then I am teaching classes at the rink. I just cleaned up the dishes from Morgen's breakfast, he just woke up. I saved his eggs from earlier when I made breakfast for everyone else. He is such a night owl. Max has been outside for hours playing baseball with the sandlot gang. I stayed up watching the longest all-star game in history with him last night. He just can't get enough of baseball. Markus is riding his bike. He is doing so well on his two wheeler. I love my little boys so much!

Baby's Breath

I was finally able to take dinner out to Kelli and see her new baby, Jane Elise. She is such a beautiful little girl. All of her babies are though, they don't have squished little heads since she has to have a C-section every time. Anyways, it was so fun to see her and she looks great. I think she is feeling a little overwhelmed at the thought of being the mom of 5 kids, but she seems like she is doing okay. Her baby is so sweet. I love the smell of babies, their breath, their skin with lotion on it, their little blankets, yummy!

I went for a run tonight after eating ice cream at dinner. Not a good idea. It was still a pretty good run around the park just not very fast I guess. I tried to see how fast I was going with Ben's garmin, but it was out of batteries. It was still really hot outside even though it was late. I love running at night though with the moon out.

Happy Birthday Aria!

Morgen & Kailey hanging out

Markus & Aria swinging out!

Orientation was so boring today and they could have done what they needed to do in about 1 hour instead of 8 1/2. Oh, well, at least it is over with. Now I can just take the classes when they start next month. I hope that I pass the drug testing, since I took my allergy medicine this morning. I think it will be okay though, the girl I talked to said that it would be fine.
I missed my boys though, and I am so glad they were able to have a fun day at Aria's birthday party at Color me mine. They painted some cool plates it sounds like and I will get to see the finished products on Friday. They had a great time too! After I picked them up from Monet's house we came home and then dropped Max off at his friends house to spend the night. Monet invited us to dinner at Macaroni grill and of course I said yes, I love Macaroni grill. Aria looked so cute and the opera guy sang happy birthday to her in Italian. She was grinning from ear to ear. Then they came over to borrow some camping stuff for Kailey to go to YW camp next week. Monet ended up staying and talking to me for hours, in fact they just left. It was such a fun night and I wish we could hang out more often. We used to all the time and then life just gets so busy sometimes, you forget what is really important. She invited me to go to Las Vegas with her and some of her girlfriends next month. I think that it would be so fun to go, but I don't know if I am going to or not, I will have to see. Thanks Monet for helping with my boys today. I love and appreciate you so much.

Emotion

I have been so emotional today. I am inspired to learn so many more things, I just really know so very little about life, our world, the universe. I want to study and learn and know so much more.

I guess that is a good thing, since I am going to the nursing programs orientation tomorrow. I am going out to the jordan campus early in the morning and it is an all day thing I guess. I am not sure why it takes all day to just learn about the program. But that is the plan. So if you need to get a hold of me for any reason, just send me a text.

Later,

BB

Moroni

It is funny I was talking about my great-great-grandfather yesterday, Moroni Fuller and now today, I am teaching the lesson on Captain Moroni. The manual suggests using some armor to illustrate a point and I asked Ben to call his friend Richard to borrow the armor that he has from England and he agreed but Richard is in Yellowstone, so he can't borrow it today. Oh, well, maybe next time.

I went to an "after party" last night for a family in our ward's daughter who just got married. They didn't want a reception, so they called it an after party instead. It was at the park at our stake center and they had a bbq and a water slide for the kids and snow cones. It was a great night for it and I was able to hold my friend Ginger's baby. He was totally crying and fussing when I took him. I wrapped him up and he fell asleep within two minutes. He is so sweet and I was really enjoying the evening, just talking to friends and watching the wedding video. The boy that Lee married, Bryce, has taken her on all of these amazing trips while they were dating. So they had some cool pictures from all over the world. His dad is the VP over Russia for an oil co. (I forget which one?) They had these little party favor bags for all the guests to take home with chocolate from Russia and a little wooden doll key chain, like the russian stacking dolls. So cute. Anyways, it was a really fun wedding party and every one was having such a nice time.

Echo Tri

Time after time

I ask myself why I get up at 5 a.m. every time I do a triathlon. I think that the answer is different every time but usually along the lines of ... Because I Can! Ben signed us up for the Echo tri last month after the Salem bike was cancelled. So I did it this morning and it was really good weather finally. I think I got faster than last year, I can't remember what my time was for sure. I will have to go look it up, but this year it was 1:25 and some seconds. I wasn't very focused on the race and haven't been sleeping well at all, but that is nothing new. (In fact I was awake before the alarm went off at 5.) So it is what it is, I guess. I had a huge drink of lake water and lost sight of the last buoy in the water, my swim may not be as fast but I think I did okay on everything else. I ended up 2nd for my age group, but the three girls that ran past me on the run where in a younger age group. I was trying so hard to keep up with them, but if you don't have it, then you just ain't getting it.

I have been thinking a lot about my pioneer ancestors this week, since I saw Emma on Tuesday night with my friend Sharon for her birthday. She really identifies with Emma Smith I think since she has lost two of her babies in the past couple of years, as Emma lost so many of hers. A couple other friends came from our ward as well and we were all really sad afterwards. Except for Sharon, it almost cheered her up, I am not sure how, but whatever. It was a really depressing movie and made me so sad to think about all the trials that our ancestors went through. My Grandma Josephine's (Jo, is what I always called her) grandfather was the only one in his family to survive winter quarters, his mother, father and siblings all died there. His name was Moroni Fuller and I emailed my Uncle Skip the other day to get some more information on this side of my family. Maybe I will create a blog about my family history sometime, if I can find enough information. I find it fascinating, all the stories, photos, etc. of the trials and successes in life. I think that is why I like scrap booking and writing in my journal so much (now I just blog). I wish that my grandma Jo had kept a journal of the stories that her Grandpa Moroni had told her. That would be so amazing to read of the experiences he had in winter quarters and crossing the plains, maybe even meeting Emma Smith or Joseph. Who knows who they could have been friends with, I have no idea how many people died at winter quarters. I visited there once a while ago when Ben's brother got married in the winter quarters temple. It was a very quiet cemetery and I felt so sad thinking about that whole family buried there, except for one young boy who survived. If he hadn't would I be here today? Maybe, but it makes me think about the fact that one person can make such a difference in the world.

"My heart is full of love towards my ancestors and I look back upon their journeys, trials and hardships w/ awe and wonder at what they were able to accomplish. I also recognize the Hand of God in their lives and know he has a purpose for all of us."

Since my mom and dad have been taking care of Cole, for my sister Sheri, since he was about nine months old, my mom always throws these huge birthday parties for him. This year was no exception. She had it at Washington Park up the canyon and invited the fam. It was a Tiki themed party and she had so much food there, a pinata and volleyball, baseball and a hammock (which I thought was pretty fun to relax in and the boys thought was great to swing crazy in). Monet brought her new boyfriend with her and his two little girls, who are so cute. Sheri forgot about the party, she said. Cole was totally spoiled by mom though trying to make up for the lack of a mom in his life, I think. She bought him a WII and some clothes and a few books. Anyway, it was a fun evening in the canyon.

Cole's 10th birthday party

Jewel

My little sister Darlin signs her last name as Jewel. I am not sure why she decided to do that, she just does. Anyways, she didn't officially change it she just signs her autographs that way. Why do we do the things we do anyway? What are motivators in life? I heard a talk about this not too long ago, but I can't remember all the reasons that the guy said. I know that he mentioned love as one of the greatest motivators. Another was fear, but I don't remember the others. I am more motivated by love.

From one of my favorite movies: The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds, and that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I hope to give to you forever. I love you.

Allie: Do you think that our love can create miracles?

Noah: Yes I do. That’s what brings you back to me each time.

Allie: Do you think our love can take us away together?

Noah: I think our love can do anything we want it to.

We're not so different; You and me

The following is from a friend of mine's blog. She always has something interesting to say and I thought I would quote it here.

"I was watching Oprah awhile ago. Before I explain why this particular episode stood out to me, let me first say I really am inspired by Oprah. Not only is she an intelligent, powerful woman, but she talks about real issues. Not that paternity tests and "my boyfriend slept with my uncles sisters cousin" isn't important, but she really does address current issues facing women and society as a whole. Sometimes she tries to create a little controversy, but not like Tyra Banks who turns a 'daddy daughter date' in to some sick and twisted idea. The particular episode I watched was a high school experiment at "Monroe High". They took a large group of students in to the gym and asked them questions. If the answer was 'yes', they were to step over the big black line. If the answer was 'no', they stayed where they were. I can't say I was surprised when almost everyone crossed the line when asked a question about abuse by a family member, friend or teacher or when asked about being humiliated in the classroom. I guess that is really the foundation for the title of this blog, "We're not so different; You and me." I think sometimes we try to identify ourselves by being 'different' than those around us because somehow that makes us special. But when it comes right down to it - no matter where we're from, how much money we don't have, or what types of clothes we wear, we have experienced some of the same things and I think more often than not, those are the things that shape who we are. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that instead of trying to identify ourselves as being so different and unique from one another, maybe if we tried harder to find what we have in common and learn from each other for those things, the world would be a happier place."

SO I was thinking about what she said and wondered if the world really would be a happier place if we tried harder to find what we have in common. I had another friend in our ward a while ago that said if you talk long enough to someone, eventually you will find something that you have in common. I have found that to be true, so maybe the other thought goes a long with it. I don't know, I was just thinking about it. What do you think?

Chillin' with Dillon

Max loves to have his friend Dillon come over to play. I just went downstairs and heard my favorite sound in the whole world, my boy's laughter, coming from the porch. So I went out there and found these cute little guys swinging on the swing eating ice cream. They had just come in from playing night games and lighting fireworks and some cottonwood on fire.

I am going to go and try to get Markus at least in bed. I am planning on running at the park in the morning.

Joy

I just read a great quote from a book. "Has joy any survival value in the operations of evolution? I suspect that it does; I suspect that the morose and fearful are doomed to quick extinction. Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless."

Blogs

I absolutely, positively love reading other peoples blogs. Mine is really pretty boring if you ask me, but there is something so fun about reading other blogs. I can't wait to check them everyday and I am so disappointed when there is not something new to view. (I know I really need to get a life!) So thanks for posting stuff, and for viewing mine. Sorry if it bores you, I will try to keep it more lively. Thanks for looking.

Markus Jones

Markus is obsessed with Indiana Jones. Not just since the new movie came out either.

He bought this hat at Disneyland last year and loves to wear it all the time.

He sings the songs where ever he goes and has a CD with them on it as well.

He knows all the movies and was so excited to see the new one when it came out in May.

He loved it when he was three and had an Indiana Jones birthday party.

This photo I took of him after his birthday party, he was listening to the Indiana Jones song and showing me how Indie likes to sleep.

After the song ended he didn't move, so I lifted up his hat and he had really fallen asleep!

He even has an Indie T-shirt.
He is one fanatical fan!

He found the whip at Wal-mart a while ago and wears the side bag and leather jacket just like Indie.