Oh, S#&*!

(*Snow. That word up there is "snow".)

S#&* is pretty much everywhere. Then...

It got sunny! The snow melted, and then at about 5:30,
this started:

It's snowing again.
(Picture courtesy of Josh.)
Go ahead. Bring ON the Snow. We don't care.
We just got addicted to Lost

and that's like 47+ thousand hours of t.v. viewing that we've gotta do before we do anything else.
The Buck's are not going to be very social for a while.

Pictures You Won't See
In The Photo Album

$75 got me an 8x8 hardcover album containing :

• my baby pics
• family portraits from the 70's & 80's
• letter from my Dad the day after I was born
• poem that my Mom wrote to me
• school class pictures &
• then & now pictures of our old houses.

Photoshop is allowed. For example, the front cover photo...

Front Cover Photo...........................The Original

Good-bye guy in the back. Who are you anyway? I hope I didn't just erase my Dad.

Was is worth $75 and 20 hours on the computer?

Yes! Except- a few days after the book arrived in the mail...
I found these beauties that were hidden in a pile of papers in a cabinet. They did not make it into the album...

4th, 5th & 6th grade respectively. I am kicking myself over prematurely printing the album. Josh's baby album is in the works presently. I recommend taking on this project, it was very satisfying.

So, I thought I lost the camera, so, I didn't want to do anything on the computer until I found it...that's explains the blogger sabbatical.

Want to know what
heaven
is going to be like?

Not this, necessarily:

This is Mt. Si in Washington, it's gorgeous, maybe visually capturing the essence of "heaven", but I think heaven is going to be like the experience we had last weekend.

Last Friday, the YM & YW had a Ward Youth Conference overnighter at a church owned ranch that was near the place pictured above. The highlight, the heavenly moment, was captured on film. In the kitchen, in the lodge:Seeing my son...scrubbing pots, smiling kind of, and other young men working together, in a kitchen:
Heaven. Boys are hard workers. They are so sweet, I would want to take them all home, but I know this would never happen in my own kitchen. They even served breakfast to the YW and adults.
That was pretty much the best moment ever for me that day.

Other highlights include very spiritual & fun learning experiences:
2 hour long ping-pong tournaments:and other character building activities that I didn't take pictures of.

Basically, heaven for me is a place where:

• I sit around watching other people work hard and
  
• if I could get my back scratched at the same time...

that would be heaven.

Wait, wait, wait. Do-over. That turned out lame.

Heaven for me is a place where:

• I get to witness my kids and youth apply the gospel lessons they've learned by serving others
• and some other stuff like, be with my husband and stuff
  

that's what I meant.

(actual conversation between Audrey & me)
"Why was Dad yelling at you tonight?"

"What?"

"When I was brushing my teeth, I heard Dad yelling."

"Uhhh...Oh, yeah! I'll tell you after I take these bleach thingies out." (Crest White Strips)

"Okay, so, I spent today scanning in all of my old photos from when I was a baby and put them in an online book. It's really cool. It's hardbound, it's pink, and it gets printed, then in a couple days I pick it up at Target."

"So."

"Well Dad is mad because I was taking the baby pictures out of one photo album, just to have them printed in another album and then pay for it. Why not just leave them in the album that they are in and not pay anything?"

"Yeah."

"No! You see, I scan in the baby pictures, correct the coloring, remove the blemishes and then print them in a book that is so much cuter and cooler! Am I alone here? Doesn't anyone understand family history?"

"Dad's right though."
"But the books are cuter than those 3 ring sticky-albums. Good night."

It's so easy.

My Precious... Remote Control

In September during our family counsel, we (the parents) decided to disconnect our cable for 3 reasons:

1. Brutal violence over possession of the remote control. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of TV shows were missed because of "missing" batteries and "hidden" remotes. We might never have a chance to see those shows again. Could we have just walked up to the TV and turned it on with our finger? We will never know...
   
2. There was no second reason.
   
3. Inappropriate commercials.

Absence of cable does not mean absence of TV, however. Instead of watching TV shows, we have been spending hours, hours, hours on:

• DVD's
• special features
• movies with commentary
• deleted scenes
• outtakes
• re-watching movies in other languages, like Harry Potter in Spanish is funny
• netflix like crazy
• reading actual books, when we can't decide what movie to watch

There are still fights with the remote, so nothing was really solved was it?

Helpful Easter Tips:

Blue: Good

Pink: Good

Yellow: Good

Green: Good

Orange: DisgustingI think this info will save a lot of people a ton of time.
Or, this info will save a lot of people no time. One of those.

If just one person could be saved from having to test all of the colors and figuring out which ones are the gross ones, then my job is done. You're welcome.

Yo soy cranky hoy

Does that mean, "I am cranky today"?
If it does, then good because that's what I meant.

Since I Dumbledore dies was born with the ability to endure frustration Snape is the half blood prince and extreme emotions with very little upset, all Snape is also a good guy hostility gets filed in the special filing cabinet in my head. Anger builds up, and then needs to break loose. Harry Potter Turrette's is one of the symptoms, along with other T-Rex personality traits.