Fundraiser for Plane Crash Survivors

On the sidebar of my blog, I'm putting a "donate" button for a young couple (the Nielsons) who survived a plane crash recently (click here for article and picture of crash site). They are in medically induced comas with severe burns. The wife is burned the worst, about 80% of her body. The husband is around 30%. They are in the process of many surgeries, skin grafts, etc. They will be in a coma for probably months.

If you have any spare money lying around, even if it's just a dollar here and there, I implore you to help out. I cannot even fathom what their medical bills are going to amount to (I had 2 ER visits recently and will be paying those off for the next year and a half, so just imagine what theirs will be).

For updates on the couple's condition and how their kids are coping, go to http://cjanerun.com

PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM; their names are Stephanie and Christian Nielson.

I Don't Do Politics, but...

This post has been edited to say the following:

THANK YOU to my friends who really know me and let me be ME without imposing any bizarre analysis on me or twisting my words, or taking things the wrong way. You know me; you know my "kooky" personality and you know when I'm joking or when I'm being sarcastic. You don't get your shorts in a bunch if I say something "catty" because you know I'm kidding. You know "the real me." I guess that's what real friends are, huh?

Smooch!
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Some People I've Met

I've met some people you may have heard of (and others you definitely haven't) that have left an impression on me in some way. This came to mind while starting my playlist for Halloween (we looooooooooooove Halloween in our house, already can't WAIT to do my Halloween blog). I ran across a few music tracks from Bella Morte. Here they are (the band, not the music tracks):

The singer, in the middle, is Andy Dean(e) with or without an "e" at the end, I can't remember. I met him at a little health food store in Charlottesville, VA called The Integral Yoga. His friend, also my friend, Bram was working there at the time (Bram died in 1995 of a self-inflicted gunshot; I'm so not going there). Bram and I were talking and he introduced me to Andy, who acted like I was not worthy of making his acquaintance. LOL! I thought he was so obnoxiously into himself! I didn't put them on my playlist; their music doesn't impress me much; maybe that's because I can't deal with the 'tude. I used to work with Andy's mom at Whole Foods, too.

Whole Foods was a great place to meet people. That's where I had my infamous encounter with Dave Matthews. That's him in the middle there:

We flirted shameslessly around Whole Foods then I sat in his car (a dirty old blue Ford wagon of some sort) and we talked for a few minutes. He later called me on my cell phone, but I was too busy to hang. Sorry, Dave!

I also met Sissy Spacek at Whole Foods. We were in the dairy aisle together; she was on the soy/rice milk side. Allie and Zane were 2 and 4. I stopped to chat with Sissy for a second and she said my kids were so adorable. Yeah, they were. They are. Ms. Spacek was very very sweet and gracious. I instantly liked her.

In 1987, my friend Jennifer, her sister Heather and I drove to New York to visit their other sister, Lynn. While there, we went to a conference at Chitaqua where there were former Soviet ambassadors and some US politicians, among them Mario Cuomo whom Jennifer and I LOVED. I was wearing my I heart NY t-shirt (once a dork, always a dork) and Mr. Cuomo noticed it and actually came right up to Jennifer and me and started chatting us up. We were 17 at the time. We begged him to run for President, but his answer: "I love New York too much." He would not trade NYC for the White House. I liked him even more having met him.

I've met bunches more "famous" peeps, but can't think of them right now. (Tina, do you remember who they were? I know I told you a bunch of them.)

Speaking of bad memory issues...I saw a doctor about it yesterday. I can't remember what he said, but he ordered some tests and I'll have the results in 2 weeks. Fun times.

Blast From the (Young and Skinny) Past

I blame my weight gain on my happy marriage. A guy I dated long ago had a little phrase for that: "fat and happy." In these pix, Todd and I had been married 4 months. We were house-sitting for his parents, who were on a mission in Chile and Ecuador.

Todd's birthday: note that trim jawline.

I could still fit into my Hello Kitty t-shirt! I had muscle tone in my arms! My gut (don't you love that pretty word?) didn't lap over itself. What?

Look at how little A & Z were!

Allie has loved chickens ever since we had a missionary who visited us regularly in 2002 whose last name was Chacon. Allie called him "Chicken." Todd, in his cuteness, brought home a couple of little chicks one day. Allie was ecstatic!

Zane was surgically attached to Todd back then:

Allie didn't have type 1 diabetes then. That's always the first thing I think about when I look at old pictures. Then I have to go cry.

The End of My Peaceful Existence

Todd was out back tonight working on the backyard, so I decided to go hang out, too. I perused the perimeter of the fence and saw a widow web in the northeast corner, and so went to get a flashlight. Todd killed the widow, then found another and killed that one, too. I found two more babies further down the fence and drowned them with Odo Ban and Simple Green. I continued along the length of the fence until I came to the far opposite end and shined the light in that corner. To my horror I saw one of these... (go see it! i'm not putting that freakishly scary picture on my blog!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Skorpion_fg01.jpg

For the past year and a half, I've been living with the belief that we didn't have scorpions in our happy little section of the desert. My comfortable little lie came completely undone in that moment and my life changed forever. This was the end of my peaceful existence.

I froze. I began to shake. All I could do was stand there shrieking/howling/squealing "Scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion scorpion," until Todd walked casually over.

He took my flashlight and I took several steps backward. I started bawling...really bawling, crying my heart out. Loudly. (The neighbors no longer have to wonder if I'm a nut; they now have their confirmation).

The scorp evaded Todd's attempts at squishing him and darted into a crevice in the block wall of the fence. Damn crevices to Hell! At that point, I retreated to the house in a state of despair. Allie was on the computer and I approached her, sobbing, to tell her the bad news.

She laughed at me.

I called Amy to tell her the bad news, still crying. She tried so hard not to laugh at me.

It is so not funny.

Twilight Movie Early Release!!!!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Where will you be on November 21st? I will be at the theatre!

I was so disappointed to hear that Harry Potter's latest movie release was being moved to July of 2009, but then I found out that because of that open slot, Twilight's going to open then instead of December 12th!

WHOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.twilightthemovie.com/

HA!

PRE-ORDER your TICKETS at http://www.movietickets.com and you will get a free download of Bella's Lullabye from the soundtrack!

I am soooo looking forward to November! Cool weather will finally come, Thanksgiving (one of the best holidays ever!), cool weather, a four-day weekend, did I mention cool weather? And now TWILIGHT to top it all off.

Let's just pretend I'm not 38, k?

Ward Campout

This weekend was our ward campout, past Payson. At an elevation of over 6,000 feet, the weather was unspeakably mild and a wonderful break from all things August: heat, humidity, misery.... You should definitely read Allie's version of the campout, which is hysterically funny. Click here for it.




Bryce stopped in the middle of a pretty little stream to have a snack....


Zane's fave thing was the rope swing....

And mine was the flora....

I loved the indigo colored polka dotted beetles...very cool!

Girl of My Dreams

Some of you have read the rough beginnings of my autobiographical book. All who've read it have encouraged me to continue, to finally finish it. Since the only way I can seem to put words down these days is on a blog, I'm going to do it there. It's going to be set to PRIVATE because I don't want the whole world to read it in it's unfinished form, so if you want access to it, send me your email address via a "comment" at the bottom of this post (you know, where it says _ holla'd back). I won't publish the comment...will keep your email address private. Or just email me if you know it.