Happy Birthday Tina!

19 Things I Love About Christina (in no particular order)


1. She likes to talk to me.
2. She is a good leader.
3. She always knows exactly the right thing to say to people she has just met, or older people, or visitors...
4. She loves the temple.
5. She is diligent about studying.
6. She is a good cook. (I really like her recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken.)
7. She is a good driver.
8. She is a good organizer.
9. She is neat and clean.
10. She inspires me to be neater and more organized.
11. She loves and admires her sisters.
12. She reads her scriptures faithfully.
13. She tries to choose to be happy.
14. She likes to watch romantic movies with me.
15. She likes to be with me. (It is fun to be a mom and have your kids like you.)
16. She likes Disneyland. (Who doesn't ?)
17. She is doesn't like to spend my money-she always wants to pay for things herself.
18. She loves her grandparents and she loved her granny and grandpa.
19. She has many qualities that remind me of the best in my mother (see 2,4,8,9,12) and other good qualities that remind me of her grandma Doreen.

20. AND one for good measure. She can sit on an exercise ball with her legs crossed and balance on it.

We Moved

Last night our hotel room smelled strongly of cigarette smoke. We went to the front desk and I complained (to Hassan-the same guy who fixed the other stuff that was wrong.) He told us he would give us a new room. He moved us to the first floor (we were on the second floor-the third floor is the smoking floor.) We are in a much nicer room. It has recently been remodeled and it smells fresh and clean.
I am basically a person who never complains, but I have done my share of complaining this trip and it has paid off. I always complain nicely and I will let the hotel chain know that Hassan was very good to us.

My first day in a hotel room

Yesterday I got to spend my first whole day in the hotel room. So you must be wondering what I did. We are staying in an extended stay hotel, so there is no room service. To start the day the toilet overflowed. So I got to go down to the desk and get a plunger and towels to clean up the mess. Not my favorite thing to do.
The TV wasn't working. Someone came to our room to fix it. He turned on the TV and it was working. He turned to Showtime and then checked the remote. It was not working. While he was doing that the TV was still on Showtime on a movie that had to be R rated. Just the sound of it made me ask him to change the channel. He changed it to Showtime 2. That seemed to be a horror movie, but at least it didn't sound R rated so Julianna and I just ignored it. He finally decided that we just needed a new remote and he went and got one.
Also the heat stayed on almost constantly until I realized that the window was open about 1/2 inch and I could't close it. The TV guy fixed that, too. Everything seems fine now.
The good stuff about yesterday. I read a lot from both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I also read a good children's book called "The Lost Prince." It is a Francis Hodgeson Burnett Book. I really liked it. It had a lot of the typical elements of her books-an extraordinary child, a cripple, royalty, a child who is poor and wealthy. But it was really interesting.
I did some handwork. I ate soup. I talked to my family. And the day was filled with mostly good stuff.

What would you do for 2 weeks in hotel room?

Julianna and I are flying to Chicago on Sunday. Julianna is going to fulfill one of her dreams by taking the Wilton cake decorating class. Since she is far enough along that she really shouldn't travel by herself, I am going with her. I will be spending 12 days in a hotel room. We are going to use taxis to get around and Julianna will take a taxi to get to the school. The hotel is not near anything, so I will not have anywhere to go during the day. Also, since we are flying Southwest and can take 2 suitcases each for free, we are going to take food with us in our suitcases.

I have a Kindle and I will take some crochet and embroidery projects, but I wonder if any of you have any suggestions on what I should take-both things to do and things to eat.

What would you do if you were going to spend 2 weeks in a hotel room?

By the way, I am actually looking forward to this.

Thanks, Julianna

Julianna made an awesome new background for my blog. Thanks!!!

An improved picture of Pam

I put two sizes up because the smaller one is a little better quality, but the bigger one is easier to see.

Happy New Years

I am not much of a New Years person, and I don't feel sentimental about it. I have never thought much of that day as "the day to make goals." Setting goals should be a continuous process and there are not very many goals that have one year as a good time frame. It is a good time to evaluate, but that is about it.
I have not established very many traditions to go with the day. The most enduring tradition is aebleskivers, but that goes with every holiday. We always pop bubble wrap at midnight-it sounds like fireworks. We usually drink sparkling soda.
We used to play Candyland with real candy on some of the places. The goal wasn't to win, it was to land on one of the candy spaces.
This year for New Years we played an really fun game called Telestrations. It is a cross between Telephone where you whisper something to someone and they whisper to the next person, etc and Pictionary. EVERYONE loves this game. We also played Monopoly Deal until right before midnight and then popped our bubble wrap. Some of us tried to stay up and watch Aristocats, but we all promptly fell asleep. Annemarie had to go to work at 11:30 so she wasn't even here at midnight.
Anyway, Happy New Year to you all and I love you.