Delilah

Have any of you ever heard the radio personality, Delilah? She's nationally syndcated and is on 99.1 in the evenings. I don't listen to her, but I have heard her occasionally when I have been trying to find a good song on a station.

Today I read that she pulled her kids out of their school in Washington. Here's why, in her own words:

"I would like to say that I am merely 'deeply concerned' about a recent addition to the school's teaching philosophy, but instead, I am forced to admit I am actually HORRIFIED by the recent addition of a book by Mormon author Steven (sic) Covey."

Wow! She is upset because the school has introduced a leadership curriculum based on Covey's book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". Seriously, that is a best selling book that has been read by millions of people. I wish our schools would incorporate some of his leadership ideas into their curriculum.

What's sad is that she will be allowed to get away with this prejudice because it is against Mormons. She will suffer no repurcussions for her bigotedness.

Christmas Song?

Robert dared me to post a video of his favorite Christmas song. So here it is:

Not quite Josh Groban singing "O Holy Night". To each his own, I guess!

A Mother's Happiness

Today at Church my three boys blessed the Sacrament. I loved seeing the three of them sitting behind the Sacrament table together. It definitely brought joy to my heart.

Merry Christmas, Robert!

I realize it's now 10:24p.m. in Abu Dhabi, but I wanted to wish Robert Merry Christmas!

We miss you and wish you were here. It's not the same without you (although I did get to sleep until 8:00, which was nice).

I love you!

Taste of Texas

On Saturday, I took the kids on our annual Christmas pilgrimage to our favorite restaurant:

Man, I love that place! It is beautiful any time you go, but at Christmas it is magical. They remove every decoration in the restaurant (and it's a BIG place), and replace them with Christmas decorations and lights. You could spend hours admiring the decorating job - all done by their employees, by the way.

Then there's the food. Starting off with a luscious salad bar with lots of veggies, fruit, giant blocks of cheese, and mini loaves of bread that are delicious. Then a wondrous steak for a main course. Tender and cooked to perfection with a yummy baked potato side. Then we conclude with a perusal of their dessert tray. Sigh. So much to choose from, so little room. We ended up with an 8-inch slice of chocolate cake, a piece of key lime pie, a piece of Snickers pie, and two pieces of a white and dark chocolate mousse cake. Scrumptious!! And we all brought home leftovers, so we still have stuff to savor!

Plus, our waiter, Steve, was excellent. We've always had good waiters there, but I think he's been my favorite.

Was it worth the 1 hour and 20 minute wait (even though we got there before 5:00)? You betcha!

Jeffrey's Mission Call!!

Jeffrey got his Mission Call! He is going to the Mexico Veracruz Mission! Woo hoo!

Here he is before the big reveal:

Here is a picture of his mission (the medium grey area):
The only downside? He doesn't leave until April 28th - 4-1/2 months away! I hope he can find a job!

I'm so excited for him! I can't believe I am sending out my second missionary already!

Totally Missed It

I just realized that I totally missed my one year blog anniversary, which took place on October 22nd. I missed it by A LOT! I remember when Lori posted her one year blog anniversary post, I thought, "I will have to do that too". Then I totally missed it. Woo hoo for me!

288 posts later (289 if you include this one), I am glad I started this blog. It's not as deep and insightful as a journal should be, but it's the closest I've come to keeping one in years! And it's a pretty good record of what goes on in my family. I actually enjoy going back and reading old posts. They are a little trip down memory lane (and the older I get, the more I need a written reminder).

So, happy one year and almost 2 months blog anniversary to me! And to any of you who haven't joined the world of blogging yet - do it - you won't regret it!

World History Textbook

This is a direct quote from Scott's World History book:

"In Christian societies, historical dating divides between years 'before the birth of Christ' (B.C.) and after (A.D., anno Domini, or 'year of the Lord'). This system came into wide acceptance in Europe in the eighteenth century, as formal historical consciousness increased. China, Islam, Judaism, and many other societies use different dating systems, referring to their own history. This text, like many recent world history materials, uses the Christian chronology (one has to choose some system) but changes the term to B.C.B. ('before the common era') and C.E. ('of the common era') as a gesture to less Christian-centric labeling."

I added the bold to the paragraph.

This makes me sad and angry. If we are going to use Christian chronology for our dating, than use the Christian terms!

Yummy!!

Chick-Fil-A's Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake!!

Serious Deliciousness!

Deja Vu

So I was looking through my posts from December 2008. On December 7th my post was griping about how our ward didn't sing Christmas songs that day. It was eerie how similar it was to my post from December 6th of this year. I am apparently very predictable in my writing!

All I have to say is that I had better not have to make that same post on December 5, 2010!!

Christmas Pretty!

The outside of our house is all decorated for Christmas! We haven't had icicle lights since Brian left on his mission - we couldn't get Jeffrey to go up on the roof! It's nice to have Brian back to hang our icicle lights! (You have to click on the picture and enlarge it to really see the icicle lights.)

I bought two metal art Christmas cats at the Nutcracker Market. They look very Siamese-y, and since we own two Siamese cats, I thought they were appropriate. You can't really see how cute they are - the painted part is facing inside. But I really like the way they show up as silhouettes in the window above the door. Brian thinks we should leave them up all year round!
I love my Christmas decorations! Hooray for Christmas pretty!

Bummed

Today at Church we sang no Christmas songs. None. That's not right. I firmly believe that once December begins, every song we sing at Church (except the Sacrament song) should be a Christmas song.

We had better sing Christmas songs next week, or I'm going to be very angry!