Good News Minute

I realized that there are so many good news in my life that I wanted to share some of them with you:

1) Mountain View vs. Orem High School basketball game tonight. I'm so excited for this because they are rival schools and anything can happen. Before the game, there is a fundraiser spaghetti dinner. My mistake was to wear white today. You know how white shirts attract red sauce.

2) Rylee is getting baptised tomorrow. She is the oldest granddaughter of our dear, dear friends in Layton. I'm thinking there will be cookies for dessert at the luncheon. Just a hunch. Stay tuned for a re-cap of the weekend.

3) Super Bowl Sunday. I'm rooting for the underdog Arizona. Traditionally we will drive up to Layton to the Jennings and eat, eat and eat until we can't breathe, and then watch the game and especially the commercials. Stay tuned for the pictures. Should be a crack up. The Larsen's will be bringing the trophy home this year. Did you hear that Hilary, Tai, Brooke, Jordan and Dianne! We will win this year!!!

4) Dale Severson from Minnesota is coming to Provo for a week. He was the next door neighbor when I was a nanny for my cousin Tom in the early 80s. We just love Dale and Sharon. Unfortunately Sharon will be cruising the Vietnamese waters while Dale is in Provo. Dale goes skiing with the blind every winter. He is the special ski guide to them. Amazing man and amazingly great family.

4) Rod is going to Orlando next week. This is not good news to me actually because he gets to get out of the cold for 4 days while I have to suffer here. I bet there will be the biggest snow storm while he is gone. It never fails. This is good news to him. Lucky!

5) Our old friends from California moved to Spanish Fork a couple of years ago and their young daughter Bonnie, well, I guess she is not young anymore, is getting married in February.

6) My cousin Tom and his crew are coming to Utah on their spring break in March. Would you leave your home in Florida to come ski in Utah? I would never do that, if you didn't know that already. We are so excited to have them with us for almost a week. Tom ordered homemade donuts already. I must make him and Franz happy.

7) My old high school friend, Minna and her son Topi are flying to NYC in June, and I get to go spend 4 days with them. I'm super excited for this. I think I'll go and spend hours at Saks Fifth Avenue store's shoe department. It has its own zip code.

8) Celine Dion is coming to Utah on Feb 22 and I have tickets. You might be the lucky one that I will invite to go with me...

9) Draper Temple Open house is going on right now, and I get to take our Young Women with us to tour the temple. Last temple open house we went through was Mt. Timpanogos.

10) We are planning our trip to Finland this summer. We are hoping to stop-by in Paris for a few days. Not sure yet when we are going. Family! Get the darts sharpened, volleyball net hoisted, guns cleaned, and the fish fed. I'll bring great prizes.

As you can see, there are good news amid all the chaos and uncertainty. At least in my world.

It is beautiful outside after a snow storm

New Swear Word

I came up with a new swear word that I'm trying to use at all occasions when I feel like swearing. I have noticed that it is very effective and gives satisfactory results without the guilt when uttering the word. You may use it at any time. Try it, you might like it.

The word is


EXERCISE

Change I don't want to have

If I go through "the change" (menopause) this year, I can blame Obama for it. Damn him!

Not heard at boys' basketball game

Tonight was our ward's first Young Women's basketball game. Eventhough we had only 2 players there from our ward, the 5th ward filled in the gaps. It was fun to watch and cheer on those girls. Alex was one of the refs and he did an excellent job of not whistling any fouls and only one travel, and that was by accident (girls don't get any fouls and travels are not blown). If you have ever witnessed a ward level basketball game, you know how the girls bunch up together and run back and forth saying "sorry" and "please". But tonight we caught a gem of a thing that you will never hear at a boys' basketball game....EVER. One of our girls was defending the opposing team player who was running across the court dribbling the whole time. Our girl had a hard time keeping up and finally yelled at the girl she was defending:"Stop running so fast!" I thought Rod was going to die laughing. Alex's prediction of the final score was 8-2 (has happened before). We were not able to win the game but come very close with 42-34. Katie S. was on fire throwing in 3-pointers. That's pretty good with no practice and never seen the own team members before. Next game is next Thursday. Can hardly wait.

My target would be dead

Today was a really tough day at the office. My boss Rob, co-worker Dean and I went to the shooting range in Springville. Rob had purchased a new Glock 9mm fully automatic pistol, and we wanted to try it out.

I had never shot a pistol before, but many rifles in my life. I have never been to a shooting range either. So this was all new to me.

I received a short demonstration from Rob how to handle, how to stand, and how to shoot. I started popping those bullets out like there was no tomorrow, hitting the target within 3 inches from the bullseye. Some of the casings hit me on the face. One of them cut my forehead. Not badly, but there is a nice small cut. No biggy. I felt like I could serve and protect.

The gun was heavy and my arms got tired really quickly. I started shaking after shooting 15 rounds. Took a break and shot again. Many, many, many rounds.

The words:"Natural", "you are one of the best shooters I've brought here", "You should join a gun club" came out of my boss' mouth. I guess all those rifle shooting days during my childhood were not in vain after all.


First 15 rounds.


Rob and Dean.


After 1 1/2 hours of shooting, my arms were killing me, but still was able to hit the target 7 yards away pretty accurately.

Thanks Rob, that was fun. Next time, bring the Springfield so we can test that too.

All the way off, Baby!

The braces are all the way off. What a beautiful smile. What a handsome guy!

I'm pushing "purchase"...I swear I am

Because it is still snowing in Utah after 24 hours, this is what I'm about to do:

Leaving for Honolulu tomorrow am, coming back April 30. See ya!

$3,800 and 17 months later...

Before, on July 19, 2007


"Smooth as Candy Cane", says Alex about getting his braces off from the top teeth. The bottoms come off on Thursday when they put the retainer on top and the permanent retainer on the bottom.

Historical day

Today was a historical moment in our lives. No, it wasn't as historical as yesterday when Rod was actually following instructions how to put something together. I witnessed it, but was too slow to take a picture. So, I'm marking that as something special and in our 22 years of marriage, probably never happened before. Yes, I'm writing that in my journal as "miracles never cease to happen".

Today, nevertheless, was almost as historical. Our stake boundaries, or should I say, our ward boundaries in our stake got re-alligned, and we, the 7th ward, got a new bishopric. I'm sad to say that some of our great friends were taken from us, and some that we don't know yet were added on. As the Young Women's president in our ward, I get to have lots and lots of new girls in my organization (if they don't release me first...maybe wishful thinking from my part). I'm excited about this possibility because we have only 8 girls right now. Then to our new bishopric. Bishop Hyde has been a great bishop for the last 5 year, but it was his time to go, so today we received the good news. Brother Harman is our new bishop. Yea for that! He is a great man and we all have grown to love him. He was the first counselor in the old bishopric so it is very fitting that he is the new bishop. His 1st counselor is Brother Sorensen. The Sorensen's moved to our ward just this past fall and we have quickly grown to love them as well. His wife is my advisor in Laurels, and their daughter is one of the Mia Maids. Love them all. The 2nd counselor is Brother Ausbacher (sp?), and when he stood up in the crowd today, he looked like he was a young man with a couple of young kids. I'm sure he will be great as well. So, there you have it. New and exciting things happening in our lives. Now onward with the good work.

5-4-3-2-1-2009

Once again the New Year's Eve was celebrated at the Williams. As tradition dictates, we ate too much, played lots of games (where I was always the biggest loser), and told our futures for next year via solder horseshoes.

Here are Katie's, Steve's and Carsen's futures for 2009:



Rod's, Marja's and Alex's futures for 2009:



Katie's future for 2009: New grand-baby
Katie's resolution for 2009: To keep Steve safe from accidents



Carsen's future for 2009: "No money"
Carsen's resolution for 2009: Don't want to get hurt anymore



Marja's future for 2009: A NEW CAR
Marja's resolution for 2009: To get healthy and not to eat anything with a face (I hear a vegan diet calling...)



Steve's future for 2009: Airplane
Steve's resolution for 2009: Not to get into accidents



Alex's future for 2009: Money, lots and lots of money
Alex's resolution for 2009: "Hmm.."



Rod's future for 2009: Golf club with money
Rod's resolution for 2009: "It is too personal"

And so, a new year is ahead of us. What will it bring? Hopefully lots of joy, happiness, love and laughter. Thanks Steve and Katie for a fun night. We will be back for breakfast in the morning (just couldn't eat all the food that we prepared).