Classic story of the lost tooth

If you have known me for a long time, you know, as well, that I used to have a fake tooth that was attached to a retainer. I lost that tooth when I was 17 years old while still living in Finland. The life in Finland wasn't always the easiest and I, among other friends, had to make a living somehow. This is where Russia, and its vast opportunities entered the picture. In the early 80s there was a huge demand for pantyhose, gum, pens, lipstick, hats etc. You almost could name it, and there was a demand for it in Russia, or Soviet Union, as it was called in the 80s before the wall came down.

My friends and I got a brilliant idea that we could do some smuggling to earn some hard cash. We started acquiring all of those wanted items, and planned our first trip over the border. Some of the items were hard to hide, but some of them were little easier. The hats fit nicely into the big camera bag under the soft foam. Pens were sewn into the lining of the jackets etc. The only hard items to hide were the pantyhose. So, we bought a bunch of small balloons, and stuffed the pantyhose into the balloons. Then we swallowed the balloons.

We crossed the border without an incident, and proceeded to our hotel in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). When we stepped out of the elevator in our hotel, each floor had a female attendant sitting on a stool at the middle of the hallway. This attendant opened the hotel room for us, and also entered the room and immediately started asking for items such as pantyhose, lipstick etc. We were always warned that some of these attendants might be working for the KGB, so we had to be very careful.

As the custom was, we started selling our items in the hotel room by bringing buyers in. This was done by word of mouth, only. Money started coming in, and the product flew out the door. Pantyhose was in high demand among the ladies, so they had to wait a little longer for them to "work" through our system. A couple of days later, we had pantyhose available.

As our luck would be, we were dumb first timers. One of the floor attendants reported us to the KGB, and we were taken in to the headquarters to be interrogated. We were separated into individual cells, and then taken in to be questioned by a cruel bunch of ugly men. All they wanted to know who the mastermind in Finland was for this smuggling operation. I couldn't give any names because, frankly, it was our stupid idea to do this in the first place. All I could say was that it was just us working alone.

Then the torture began.

I don't know if I was the first one to lose a tooth, and why they chose that particular tooth, I will never know, but we all lost some body parts. A friend of mine, lost his nails from his left hand. After a crueling couple of hours and a lot of blood and tears, we were let go. Just dumped on the street outside the headquarters. We all were in extreme pain, and were hardly able to get back to the hotel and then to the border. But we survived to swear that we would never do anything like that again.

And that is what I used to tell people how I lost my tooth.

It is a better story than the actual story that my permanent tooth never came in, and the dentist had to remove one of the teeth so the permanent tooth can be pulled in.

Lamination vs. paper tortilla chip bag

I have been in Young Women now for 6 1/2 years straight. First 5 were spent as the camp director and now the last 1 1/2 years as the president. As we all know, women (especially Young Women and Relief Society) like to laminate everything. So, when we Young Women prepare for a camp or any overnight function, the meal plans are laminated, the recipes are inside plastic protectors in a binder, and posters are made so they can be displayed all over the place so no one will miss anything. Everybody knows this, right?

So, how do the Boy Scouts or Young Men in our ward prepare meal plans for a campout?

Rod and Alex returned late Saturday night from their Young Men's father's and son's campout to Scofield. Yesterday when I was going through some stuff in the kitchen I noticed that something was written on the Tortilla chip bag that was brought back from the campout. (You may need to click on the pictures to get the full view)



Yes, the meal plans for the weekend were written with a pencil (the audacity!) on the tortilla chip bag.
You can imagine I was rolling on the floor laughing so hard. This would never even come to a Young Women's leaders' mind. How low-tech, indeed.

Twins' birthday today

Today is Rod's 43rd, and Whitney's 29th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!


Let's see what else happened in February 1965:
-February 6 – Sir Stanley Matthews plays his final First Division game, at the record age of 50 years and 5 days.
-February 7 – The U.S. begins the regular bombing of North Vietnamese towns and villages.
-February 15 – A new red and white maple leaf design is inaugurated as the flag of Canada, replacing the Union Flag and the Canadian Red Ensign.
-February 18 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
-February 20 – Ranger 8 crashed into the Moon, after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.
-February 21- Malcom X is assassinated on the first day of National Brotherhood Week at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City, allegedly by Black Muslims.
-February 22 – A new, revised, color production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella airs on CBS. Lesley Ann Warren makes her TV debut in the title role. The show becomes an annual tradition.

Tuesday with Marja

Once a year I get to be flat chested.

Super Bowl XLII winner is.....

MIKE!

Mike and Tim were the only ones who rooted for Giants. Mike was the only one who was anywhere close to the final score of Giants 17-Patriots 14. Others were losers.

Here are some of the highlights from our traditional Super Bowl party:

-Foot of snow on the roofs in Layton. 2 feet on the ground, and still snowing hard.

-Bare bum and "moonshine" by "Cereal".

-Princess dress strip by Lana and Kenzie.

-Peeing in the family room by "Cereal", again. Ok, it was in the potty, but still.

-"Better than --- cake" by Marja

-"Dianne's O bread" by Hilary. Click on Hilary's blog, because she said she would post the recipe on her blog. She calls the bread "Tear apart bread".

-Soft slippers by Rod.

-Tacky trophy by Marja. Really, it was still tacky from the spray paint. :)

-Snowbank meet boy..Alex. Crazy!

-New TV by Tim. YEA for Tim! The armoire is gorgeous,too.

-Snickerdoodles by Hilary. Can't get yummier than that!

-Man in a sexy shirt by Bill. Green rules!

-Pregnant and beautiful in black by Tai.

-Busyest guy of the evening..Mike.

-Too much food by Dianne. I'm still full. Next year, elastic waist pants.

-A woman without a man...Sarah.

-MIA...Andrew and Jordan AND Brooke and Andy.

Botox for Valentine's Day?

This morning when I was leaving for work and leaning over my husband, who was taking a bath, and kissing him tenderly good-bye, he looked into my eyes (like he always does when he can't get enough of my beautiful eyes :) and said after a little while:"We are getting old". The eyes were not enough, anymore. He actually looked beyond my eyes, and noticed the wrinkles in the corners of my eyes. Yes, they have been there for years, and increasing and deepening every moment.

I ran out the door, and Rod hopped out of the bath, calling after me to come back. He caught me at the front door with only a towel around him. Apologies, apologies, blah, blah, blah... a mention of Mr. Rodriguez's black eyes in high school (not working or softening the blow) The truth is out.

I'm calling 1-800-Botox, today.

The muffin top has been squeezed

The decision of losing weight has been made for me today. I welcomed a very dear friend, Matti, (he baptized me) from Finland to our home this afternoon, and the first thing he did after a hug was to give me a delicious Fazer chocolate bar, and then squeezed my ever overflowing muffin top. So, that is it then. No more watching The Biggest Loser with a bag of chips and chocolate, no more eclars (ok, I had one today because Rod brought home one, but no more after this one). From now on, it is nothing but desert (not with two s's). Nothing but strict diet to lose (yet again) the unwanted 30 lbs. that I lost last year. But can I really start a diet on a Saturday? Don't I have to wait until Monday?

So, after my promise to myself to get in shape and quit eating the box full of Krispy Kreme donuts the devil came to my door tonight in form of a Girl Scout, yes, you guessed it, selling Girl Scout cookies. But in my defense, I couldn't say no to her. She is the sweetest, and the only Girl Scout in our neighborhood (in our neighborhood you HAVE to buy whenever somebody comes to the door). I just didn't have the heart, and those Samoas and Thin Mints looked so good. I'll have Rod eat them, and maybe I'll just sniff the packages. The good news is that they won't deliver them until March. Therefore, I have two months to get strong.

Ok, the second devil just knocked on our door. I'm not making this up. This really happened while I was finishing the last paragraph. This time it was a young boy doing his Eagle Scout Project by gathering school supplies to send to Congo, BUT, he was getting the money together by selling pizzas that he was going to make and deliver next Saturday. Geez, man! What the heck??! I told him we wouldn't be home next Saturday, which is true if I remember right (this time I didn't know the seller, so I didn't have to buy anything).

I'm now promising myself that I can do this. And really, how can I go to Hawaii this summer without losing weight. I refuse to blend in with the natives, even though I'm a fabulous hula dancer.

Rodsicle

This was hanging off the roof in the back of our house. It took all night for Rod to lick it all gone.

Skiing Buddies

Yesterday, Rod and Alex spent a day together on the slopes in Sundance. I think this picture tells the story how much fun they had with 15 inches of fresh powder and a 45 degree angle ridge of un-touched snow. Sorry, I don't have pictures to show the tracks that they left behind.

I just love these men in my life.

Weird World

I was told by Rod that these blue horns on the cows are considered as "spinners" in our country.

Judge for yourselves. I think the blue horns are snazzier.