The Wood Between the Worlds

I haven't had any time to blog over the last two
weeks because so much has been going on. Here are some of the highlights:

*We went on a double date with our friends The Mansius Family to see Twilight the movie. My friend Tara and I have been reading and discussing these books together for months, so it was fun to go together. Unfortunately, most of the fun was in the excitement leading up to the event. The movie was OK, but I had hoped that I would like it as much as I liked Harry Potter on film. I think that the next film will be better because the actors will have more time to get into character and hopefully there will be a bigger budget since the movie made so much money. I totally LOVED the Cullens though! Especially Esme and Alice. I can't wait to see more of them!

*Joshua does a small job every day. One particular day, he got tired of waiting for me to think of a job for him so he took things into his own hands and cleaned off the table. I am super proud of him that he took the initiative and found something that needed to be done by himself (even though the books and magazines were rather precariously placed...oh well).

* I reached 125 friends on facebook! I have friends that I didn't even know that I had before facebook (!?).

* My older sister Annika and her husband Nathan sold their house in Draper, Utah and moved up to Beaverton, Oregon!

* They brought along my mom and her husband Marvin for Thanksgiving so that we could spend the holiday with my two other sisters that now live in Oregon and I.

* My kids actually behaved somewhat decent for having guests in town.

* I spent the week before Thanksgiving planning, buying food, preparing and cooking for 14 guest. It was my first time ever hosting Thanksgiving (big deal!). Thankfully I had my mom there to help me!

* The Great Cous Cous disaster of 2008! Toby spilled 10 pounds of cous cous (Moraccan pasta) in the back of the car on the way home from Bob's Red Mill. As I was checking out at the store I was thinking that I would do my greenie part to help the environment and refuse the grocery bag. But the real mistake was leaving the exposed cous cous bag within reach of a hungry kid that's been shopping for Thanksgiving groceries for hours at 5 different stores. When we got home, the back seat was a foot deep in cous cous! Thankfully I was able to skim enough off the top to use in my Thanksgiving recipe.

* The night before Thanksgiving Brent told everyone at dinner that he had a surprise for all of us for Thanksgiving that he would have to go out and pick up. He left and was gone almost 2 hours. After he was back, there was a ring at the doorbell...it was my little sister Heather who flew in from New York to surprise us all for Thanksgiving! The best reaction of all was my oldest sister Lara. When she saw Heather, she was speechless for 5 whole minutes with her jaw hanging to her collar bone.

* I hosted guests at my house for a week and a half!

* We had a great Thanksgiving feast! I got all of my recipes from Sunset Magazine. They ranged from OK to FANTASTIC. We had a lot of wonderful guests!


* My mom and all my sisters and I got to be together for a holiday! It's been a while since that has happened and it will probably be a long while before it happens again.

* I got to sing in church 3 times. 1 trio with my friend Tara and another lady "Come thou Font", 1 time in the choir, and 1 duet with Tara (I know! But we blend really well together) at enrichment "Noel Nouvelet," a French carol.

* I was in charge of our chruch's ward Relief Society Women's Enrichment Christmas dinner and party! It was Christmas around the World. Lots of fun. Glad it's over.

*Right after we took NY sister to the airport we picked up a Christmas tree at the tree farm across the street and decorated for Christmas. Oh yeah, we're so on top of things this year!