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President Hinckley

My mom called me last night to tell me that President Hinckley had passed away, and one thing stuck in my head. How lucky we are to belong to the true church!! We don't have to worry about another prophet being called … and worry whether or not he will lead us in the right way. I remember when the Pope passed away a few years ago and they held that secret caucus and voted to determine who the next Pope would be. I remember being grateful to know that we didn't have to do something like that – our next prophet is called of God, not voted in by other men. We know another prophet will be called and we will love him and follow him because we know from whom he is called. There is no doubt in my mind that this is true. I feel at peace that the church will move forward in the right direction, continuing to spread and grow. How lucky we are to know that! President Hinckley has always felt like “my prophet” since he’s the one that has been the prophet through my teenage years and into my 20’s. I loved President Hinckley and I know he will be sorely missed by many. I know that he is enjoying his reunion with his sweet wife, Marjorie, and his many friends and family that preceded him in death. Can you imagine the reunion that is going on in heaven?!?! I bet it’s pretty spectacular! I will miss his many pearls of wisdom, and his gentle and humorous manner. 97 years old - what a legacy he leaves with us!!

Go Orangemen!!!

On Saturday we went up to Syracuse – only our 4th adventure into Syracuse. For some reason, we find ourselves going to Rochester more often than to Syracuse even though they are really pretty equal in distance. This time it had to be Syracuse though, since we had tickets to see the Syracuse University men’s basketball team take on the Villanova Wildcats. It was a Big East conference game – and a good one at that! I have wanted to go to a game for a while now … ever since we moved out here … but tickets are not cheap! We bought the cheapest ones and we were at the very top. It was all good though since we took our binoculars and we wore our orange! We cheered for the home team, but they lost in the end. Good game, though!!










To round out our weekend, we got some furniture from another NYCC student who is graduating. So we moved our living room and 2^nd bedroom around to accommodate all the new stuff. I must say, we are pretty pleased! We also had a baptism after church, which was really neat! Can’t say enough about how cool it is to watch someone choose to be baptized! I do love living out here!

Book club

We started a virtual book club, for those of you that are interested. The website is: http://www.booksrockoursocks.blogspot.com/ if you want to check it out. And if you want to be a part of the club just email me - it's open to anyone who loves to read.

Home for the holidays

Well, what can I say about Christmas? We got to go home to Utah for 2 full weeks, so we spent Christmas and New Years at home. It was really, really nice to see everyone and have the time to be able to be home with the people we love. Sounds corny, but it’s true. We didn’t go home last year (2006) for Christmas and we really haven’t been home since we moved out here to New York (save for a quick weekend trip for Cory’s brother’s wedding), so it was nice to have 2 weeks to be home. I thought 2 weeks would be plenty of time but there were still a few friends that we didn’t get time to see. We split the time between my parents and Cory’s parents, and did a lot of driving between the two … luckily they are only 45 minutes apart! Cory’s parents hosted a murder mystery dinner (see picture) and it was a lot of fun. I was a famous family psychologist and Cory got to be the detective. On Christmas day we got to talk to my brother Kendall who is serving a mission in Philadelphia, which was AWESOME. He’s doing so well and it was good to hear his voice and listen to his testimony. He’ll be home in June … only 5 more months to go! The time has flown by!! All in all, we’re very grateful for loving families and all the support they show us. We’re grateful we could go home for Christmas and see family and friends. Now it’s back to work for me and back to school for Cory – he started classes this morning. He’s in his 6^th tri (out of 10 trimesters total) and this one should be an interesting one as far as diagnostics go. Should be a fun trimester!

Playing fuseball with Nathan (Cory's brother) and his wife Shar.

Digging out

We had our first Nor’easter of the season this weekend. We had about a foot of snow on Thursday, a break on Friday and then the Nor’easter socked us - it started snowing Saturday night and snowed all day Sunday. It was bad enough that church was cancelled. We got snow, then some freezing rain, then some more snow and then some wind. The roads looked scary so we only ventured outside once on Sunday and it was to unbury our cars and dig ourselves out. Then we went back inside to warm up since it was pretty cold. NYCC was on a 2 hour delay on Monday morning, which was very good since it took a while to unfreeze the car. We’re just grateful that it looks like decent weather this coming weekend since that’s when we are flying home – good thing the Nor’easter didn’t decide to come then or we’d be in trouble.

Cory is done with his 5th trimester of chiropractic/nutrition school!! YEA!! He’s done 16 finals, 2 powerpoint presentations, 2 big papers – all in 2 weeks!! We are both really happy that he is done and definitely looking forward to the break and going home to Utah.

From left to right: Cory digging out our sidewalk; our car covered in ice from the freezing rain; the highway in front of our house (nice plowing, huh?)

What decade are you?

I confess I found these funny things on Cassidy's blog, but I hope you think they are as funny as I do!

You Know You Grew Up In The 80's if:
1. You used to buy cassette singles … and still have some stashed somewhere …
2. You can sing the rap to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and can do the Carlton
3. Girls wore biker shorts under their skirts and felt stylishly sexy
4. You yearned to be a member of the Baby-sitters club and tried to start a club of your own
5. You owned those lil' Strawberry Shortcake pals scented dolls
6. You know that "WOAH" comes from Joey on Blossom
7. Two words: Hammer Pants
8. You watched "Fraggle Rock"
9. You had plastic streamers on your handle bars... and spokey- dokies or playing cards on your spokes for that incredible sound effect
10. You watched "Duck Tales" (Woo ooh!)
11. It was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
12. You (your sister, cousins) wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
13. You saw the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the big screen ... and still know the turtles names
14. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side
16. You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it
17. L.A. Gear ... need I say more?
18. You remember reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and all the other Judy Blume books
19. You know the profound meaning of "WAX ON, WAX OFF"
20. You wanted to be a Goonie
21. You ever wore fluorescent clothing (some of us ... head-to-toe)
22. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted
23. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf
24. You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets
25. You still get the urge to say "NOT" after every sentence
26. You remember Hypercolor t-shirt
27. Barbie and the Rockers was your favorite band
28. You thought She-ra (Princess of Power!) and He-Man should hook up
29. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets
30. After you saw Pee-Wee's Big Adventure you kept saying "I know you are, but what am I?"
31. You remember "I've fallen and I can't get up"
32. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates
33. You ever got seriously injured on a Slip and Slide
34. You have ever played with a Skip-It or Elastix
35. You had or attended a birthday party at McDonalds or Hardees
36. You've gone through this nodding your head in agreement
37. Don't worry, be happy
38. You wore like, EIGHT pairs of socks over tights with high top Reeboks
39. You wore socks scrunched down
40. You remember boom boxes and walking around with one on your shoulder like you were all that
41. You remember watching both Gremlins movies
42. You know what it meant to say "Care Bear Stare!!"
43. You remember watching Rainbow Bright and & My Little Pony Tales
44. You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot
45. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac
46. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool ... and don't even flinch when people refer to them as "NKOTB"
47. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell," The ORIGINAL class
48. You know all the words to Bon Jovi - SHOT THROUGH THE HEART
49. You just sang those words to yourself
50. You remember watching Magic vs. Bird
51. Homemade Levi shorts ... (the shorter the better)
52. You remember when mullets were cool!
53. You had a mullet!
54. You still sing "We are the World"
55. You tight rolled your jeans
56. You owned a bannana clip
57. You used to (and probably still do) say "What you talkin' 'bout Willis?"
58. You had big hair and you knew how to use it
59. You're still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren't you!
ROCK ON!!!

Okay, so I can confesss to most of these ... born in 1981, I was half a child of the 80's and half a child of the 90's. Cory, however, relates to all of these. He secretly still wants to be a Goonie :) Rock on 80's children!!