EXPECTO PATRONUM!

Have you seen the new Harry Potter movie yet?!



Please do. It was really good!

Aside from a few awkward, but neccessary introductions at the beginning (due to the previous movies leaving important characters out), the "nude" scene (Really, it wasn't worth all of the hype, you don't see anything... but it was still dumb and uneccesary), and the Ginny and Harry moment (you know what I mean, those of you who've seen it. Really? Does anyone else feel like Ginny and Harry's relationship has no substance but snogging in the movies? Just sayin. I don't get the feeling that Harry is pining for Ginny at all like he does in the books while he's "camping."



But,

• it follows the book really well!


• I thought the way they portrayed the Deathly Hallows story was super cool.


• Mad Eye was hilarious.


• The acting was much better


• Did I mention it follows the book pretty well?

I know it looks like there's more bad things than good things, but I actually have loads of good things to say about the movie. I want to go see it again right now. I don't think I've felt that way about any of the movies. However, I don't want to say too much because I know a lot of people haven't seen it yet.

Is it July yet?



On a side note, I totally found a picture of my patronus on the internet.





That's right my friends, my patronus is a black labrador. I'm kind of obsessed with patronuses. It's my favorite spell, if you can call it that. I think of it more as a magically made companion of sorts. I love it. I think it reveals so much about one's soul. Except for Luna. I happen to like her soul and I'm still kind of irritated that her patronus is a rabbit. She's nothing like a rabbit. I'm not a fan of anything rabbit, but I'm a big fan of anything Luna.



At first I thought my patronus was a sea animal, because I'm kind of obsessed with sea animals. Then I realized I'm also sort of afraid of the sea animals that I love because of their giantness. I don't think you can be even sort of afraid of your patronus. That doesn't make any sense. So, I took the "What's your patronus?" Facebook quiz and it said my patronus was a bear. That doesn't make a lick of sense. It wasn't until recently that I realized it.

A labrador retriever is obviously my patronus. I'm a lot like them; I'm playful, I get excited really easily, I love being around people, and I don't like being left alone for a long period of time. Plus, their totally my guardians. There hasn't been a time in my whole life that I haven't had an important lab in my life. When I was home alone during my late child and teen years they protected me. They made me feel safe. It just makes so much sense.

Thanks.

Yup, I have for you yet another post of thanks. I can't help it, I'm just sort of obsessed with gratitude these days!

• Jobs. Jayson and I both have pretty good full time jobs. We are INCREDIBLY grateful for this right now, especially because of how the economy is right now.


• The telephone. How great is the phone?! I live fairly far from my very best friends (except Jayson of course) and when I can't talk to them in person, my second choice is the phone, hands down.


• The internet. Two of my very best friends are on missions and I LOVE getting their weekly updates via email. One of them is in the Dominic Republic, and let me tell you, good old fashioned mail takes FOREVER to get from there to here.


• Charitable souls. A great tragedy struck one of my mom's closest friend's grandchildren. They are having a raffle this Saturday to help raise money for these kids. (If anyone is interested in donating something to raffle off, or even just some money, let me know; they really need it.) My mom was telling people at work about this to see if anyone wanted to donate something and a couple of days ago an envelope was left on her desk with a hundred dollar bill in it and no name was left on it. This person didn't want any recognition for this charity, he/she just wanted to help. This really touched my heart so much and I'm so grateful for their example.
• Those small little personal revelations that say, "Everything is going to be alright." or "You are doing the right thing." I am even the ones that say, "You should do this instead" are great, although they are hard sometimes.
• Harry Potter!!! Ok, so this may seem like something that doesn't belong on a list of things I'm thankful for, but it's Harry Potter Eve... how could I leave him out? I'm SO excited for this movie and I think it's really important to have fun and have things that you look forward to. Harry Potter really helped me learn to love reading. It opened my eyes to a lot of things. It may sound really cheesey, but it has genuinely impacted my life for the better.
• Last, but most definately NOT least....my husband. He came home the other day so excited to show me a song he heard on the radio by Brad Paisley. We LOVE Brad Paisley. I know a lot of people aren't big country lovers, but we really like the style of music and Brad Paisley has some really awesome lyrics that are just about really good things. This song is perfect for my life right now, and that's why Jayson was so excited to show it to me. I have been feeling really inadequate lately...in just about everything I do. So, this song really made me smile.

I'll now post you the lyrics for you. If you don't like country...watch out. I think you can hear the twang just by reading the lyrics.

VERSE 1
To the teller down at the bank
You're just another checking account;
To the plumber that came today
You're just another house;
At the airport ticket counter
You're just another fare;
At the beauty shop at the mall
Well you're just another head of hair;

Well that's all right, that's OK.
If you don't feel important, Honey,
All I've got to say is


CHORUS
To the world
You may be just another girl
But to me
Baby, you are the world


VERSE 2
To the waiter at the restaurant
You're just another tip;
To the guy at the ice cream shop
You're just another dip;
When you can't get reservations
'Cause you don't have the clout,
Or you didn't get an invitation
'Cause somebody left you out,
That's alright, that's OK.
When you don't feel important, Honey,
All I've got to say is

(Chorus)

You think you're one of millions
But you're one in a million to me.
When you wonder if you matter, Baby,
Look into my eyes
And tell me, can't you see
You're everything to me?

That's alright, that's OK.
When you don't feel important, Honey,
All I've gotta say is

(Chorus)
And in closing I'd like to wish you all a....
HAPPY HARRY POTTER EVE!

Happy Goings On

Many people have taken it upon themselves to be more thankful this month and to think about what they are thankful for since Thanksgiving is coming up. I have seen people post gratitude in their blogs, on facebook, and give challenges to other to be more thankful. I love this! I think we should do this more often. Gratitude is the best! So, THANK you, to all of you who have expressed gratitude in the last little while. It has been inspiring. I am thinking about doing a post each month, a bullet point type post to list some things I'm really grateful for that month. I think I write more about being thankful this month though, because it is the month of Thanks!

I have also realized that I haven't really written an update in a while, I've just been posting Harry Potter videos and pictures, so it's definately time for a bullet point post. It's going to be a happy/thankful bullet point list.

These are things I am happy and thankful about as of late:

• It is fall!!! I have always really liked fall, but summer usually wins me over as my favorite season. I actually used to list summer AND winter (gasp!) as my favorite seasons! But, this year fall wins the gold. I have been thoroughly enjoying the beautiful leaves and cooler weather. It is perfect! I officially declare fall as my new favorite season.
• I have been loving the leaves so much that I've been taking some pictures of them (especially the brilliant red ones, my personal favorite) and have re-discovered my liking for taking beautiful pictures. I will have to post some of them someday, but my computer isn't very happy lately, so I'm trying to keep from loading things onto it.
• Speaking of pictures....I SOLD a picture I took! It was one I took last weekend of the beautiful sunset that Friday night. It was only for $20.00, but it was totally unexpected. A guy from work had seen it on facebook and he asked if he could buy it from me and use it. He takes pictures of temples and puts them in front of really gorgeous backgrounds and uses them for gifts and stuff. I was very flattered, I never thought I'd sell a picture I took!
• Jayson and I have officially purchased tickets to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. We won't be going to the midnight showing though. I am sad about this because I love the enthusiastic crowd and the fun that goes with them, but I am also not sad because I'm really not a big fan of staying up that late any more. I have no idea how I used to do that so often back in my single days! Anyway, we were going to go even though we don't like to stay up so late, but Jayson has been driving for work a lot lately and there's a 90% chance he'll be driving the day the movie comes out, so we figured 4 hours of sleep max+ drivng for eight hours= bad life choice. So, we are seeing it on the 19th after work, and we are stoked!
• Yesterday I bought a pineapple. I love fresh pineapple, maybe more than any other food(except pizza, obviously).
• Speaking of delicious food, today I made a peanut butter pie! It's ingredients include sugar, peanut butter, cream cheese, fudge, and whipped topping....so it's bound to be delicious! We haven't tried it yet though...but I'm super excited.
• Weekends. Oh how we live for and love the weekends. I truly forgot how perfectly wonderful weekends can be. When I was in school weekends were sort of non existant, especially what we think of as "Saturdays". I think I did more homework saturdays than during the week, so weekends really lost their thrill for me. Now that it is back and the business of summer is over I am in heaven on the weekends. Sometimes we do something fun, sometimes we go somewhere, and sometimes we clean, and sometimes we relax. I LOVE weekends.
• On Thursday I was invited to speak at a Young Women's leadership meeting for the stake near the Jordan River temple. One of the ladies in the stake young women's presidency is good friends with Jayson's mom and his mom told her about me. She wanted to inspire the other leaders and help them know what they can do for the girls they teach. My young women leaders were HUGE influences in my life, so she wanted me to share some stories about how they made such a big difference. I was listed in the program as a "guest speaker". HA! I never really thought I'd be asked to be a guest speaker. I am really grateful for the opportunity though and I hope it was inspiring for those women.
• Teaching Primary. I think those kids teach me more than I teach them. There are just things that little children can teach us that we could never learn from adults. Since I didn't go to primary much as a child I've really enjoyed seeing what it's like and learning the basics again.
• Teaching the Young Men. Jayson has thoroughly enjoyed being a Priest advisor. It has been challenging for him to get 16-18 year olds to pay attention to lessons, but he has loved teaching them and getting to know them. I don't know if he sees it, but I can tell he's making a huge difference in their lives and being a great role model.
• Family. Pretty much everyone in my family is born in the fall or the winter, plus the holidays are coming up! That means TONS of time with family for us. WE LOVE IT. I don't think we could adequately express to you how much we love spending time with our family. Why? Because everyone in our family rocks, of course.
• Friends. I have been especially fond of my friends as of late. I don't know what I'd ever do without them. I know every says it, but I seriously have the best friends in the world.
• People. I just love people. I love getting to know people, talking to people, watching people...you get the picture. I think that the most enriching part of life are the people in it. We've been thinking a lot about the people in our ward lately (if you wonder why..please refer to the last bullet point) and how much we just adore them. We are seriously in a magnificent ward and we're going to miss our neighbors somethin' fierce.
• Babies. There are babies all around our life lately, and more on the way! Jayson's cousing just had a baby and he has two cousins that are pregnant, PLUS our sister in law, Alona (Jayson's brother's wife) is expecting! Yay for a new neice or nephew...we love those!
• And...drum roll please....We have started house hunting!! Yup! That's right, for those of you who don't already know, we are buying a house! We went looking for the first time on Friday. Crazy, huh?! It's seriously so surreal. If you would have told me two years ago when Jayson and I got married that we'd be looking for a house at this point I would have given you a funny look and laughed at how ridiculous you sounded. But, here we are! We have been incredibly blessed.

Can You Guess Who?

Halloween rocks! For some reason I always forget how much I love it until it is here. Unfortunately, due to this, I never care much about my costume until it i here. I hope I can remember this for next year so I can get a head start on it! But, this year I actually thought my costume was pretty clever. Can you GUESS WHO I am?


If you still have no idea, please direct your attention to the picture below:

That's me! Third row, second picture. I was Maria from the game Guess who! I even had the earings, although you can't tell from the picture. Yup, I totally taped her card to my work badge. I thought it was clever of me.

Jayson was suppose to be one of the red headed people from the game, but he didn't really ever get everything ready...so he wasn't really anything this year. He's kind of a go big or do nothing at all kind of guy when it come to Halloween, so don't just think he's a fuddy duddy. The year we were engaged he was the Heat Meiser from "The Year Without a Santa Clause" and I was Queen Frostine. I think those were our best costumes for Halloween together yet! Plus, he made my frame contraption, so I can't complain.

This is what my Halloween looked like, in no particular order. I'm just showing these in the order they were loaded onto the blog, because as I've said before, I really don't like organizing pictures on blog...I find it rather annoying and frustrating.

Anyway,

THE NEPHEWS AND NIECE:

Above we have Dominic, our yungest nephew as Woody. Mackay, as buzzlight year has just been knocked to ground by deadly lazer camera and Bellatrix Lestrange (Kara, Jayson's oldest sister) is about to attack Woody.

Our feeble attempt to get a picture of Buzz and Woody together.

Our one and only niece, Kelli, as Tinkerbell. She looks so adorable in this photo. She had some really cute slippers for her costume, but she didn't wear them trick or treating, so I didn't get a good picture of them. Blast.

Nephews Drew and Sammy as Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.

Aren't those boots the cutest?

LOGAN

I FINALLY got to Logan this fall. It is as beautiful as I remember it in the fall. I thought maybe it wasn't really that much prettier than Salt Lake in the fall, but when I got up there it was confirmed that Logan is SO much prettier than Salt Lake in the Fall. Fall is when I miss Logan the very most.

Are those leaves not spectacular?! The Logan trip was great. I got to eat lunch with my bestest friends Vienna and Marni, and then I got to hang out with them for a while as they craft shopped. I'm not a big crafter, but I love those girls and I'd like to get more crafty one day, so I didn't mind one bit. It was so good to see them. No matter how long I spend with them it never seems like enough these days. I was with them for like three hours, and then with Marni for another hour and I could have done with so many more.

PUMPKIN CARVING

We had our friends Ashlie, Cameron, and their baby girl Sidnie over to carve pumpkins. This is Pierre, our french pumpkin. Jayson was mostly the brains of this operation. I decided on the starry eyes, but the rest was all him. I think he's one of my favorite pumpkins I've ever carved.

Here is the cute family with their pumpkin! We also had dinner (Chili, Jayson and my Halloween tradition dinner), had root beer floats, and played games. It was a blast!

That night the sunset was spectacular.

TRICK OR TREATING AT WORK

These are my friend from work Becky's kids. They were Toff and Aang. By far the best costumes I saw all weekend. Another friend from work, Janet, made them. Aren't they amazing?!

This is my boss, King John. He built this throne in his office on Friday, which I thought was totally awesome. He's a cool boss. Once we got in a disagreement about when Harry Potter's birthday was. He won. I just forgot that July had 31 days and said it was the 30th, but the fact that he won makes him cool. He also has a Harry Potter polo shirt (I think it's a polo shirt) that he wears on a regular basis.

This is my other boss, Aaron...aka Super Dad....aka Captain Underpants. This day of work was great because it's absolutely impossible to take anything your boss says seriously when he has underwear on his head.

We also went to our ward Halloween party, but I didn't document it very well. It was a blast though!

Happy Halloween!

My Newest Obsession

Have any of you ever tried one of these?

Yup, Zots.
Apparently, these used to be popular when my parents were young. This lady at my work brought them one day (She's about my mom's age) because she found them at Macey's and she was so excited because she used to love them when she was little! One Zot and I was hooked. I tried one of every flavor on the table. Personally, I like the Watermelon and Apple ones the best, but they are all DELICIOUS.

These little things took me looking at like four different stores to find. I finally found them at the Macey's in West Jordan. They aren't even in the regular candy isle, but up in the front where the special deals are. I urge you to go and try them. They're pretty cheap..I think like $.33 cents for a string of four candies.

Just pop one in and let the fizzy fun being. Pop rocks have nothing on these things.

Are You Ready?

It all started as Jayson and I were driving down to Lake Powell for Memorial weekend with on of my best friends Marni, and her husband Jeff. Since it's sort of a lenghty drive I got this brilliant idea (or maybe it was Jayson's idea...I can't remember.) to bring some Harry Potter books on CD to listen to. We decided on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This was wonderful.
Confession: before this I had never re-visited the Harry Potter books. GASP! End confession.
Listening to this book was like visiting an old friend. Not the awkward meeting, but the kind where you see a friend you haven't seen in years and it's like you were never parted. From then on I knew what I had to do. I decided then and there. I was to re-read the whole series before the movie came out. I read half of the first book when I realized..hey! I can totally listen to these at work while I do spreadsheets. So, that's exactly what I did, and it was WONDERFUL. I would go back and forth, at work I'd listen and in spare time on camping trips or at home I'd read where I left off from the CD's. These books are AMAZING and I loved them even more the second time around. Plus, Jim Dale is the greatest thing that ever happened to story reading.
I have re-read/ listened to all the books since May.
I have re-watched all of the movies, save the 6th one...which I plan to watch not too long before the new movie comes out. Needless to say, I am stoked out of my mind for this video.
I AM READY.
NOVEMBER 19TH
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS
PART 1

ARE YOU READY?

All I want for Christmas.....

Is this....




DESCRIPTION ON WEBSITE:


Tame the Beast of HD Pictures with this magic device!
You know you have always wanted to be a wizard. But not one of those swish and flick wizards from the movies. You want to be the Dungeons & Dragons wizard - the party's controller. See that word there? CONTROLLER. It means you control the battlefield; you control everything! Sure, you're squishy and sometimes there's collateral damage when you let out a blast, but it's all in a day's work. As a wizard, you have a choice in implements, but everyone knows The Wand is the ultimate when you want to be an elite controller.


Our Wand may not make legions of kobold minions explode into flames, but it will learn up to 13 commands from your existing remote controls and map them to particular magical motions. Flick the wand from side to side to flip the channels, twist the wand to turn up the volume. A beam of light will shoot out the unicorn tail hair and magic will happen! The Wand can learn from any remotes in your house and once you master its 13 movements, you can mastermind a symphony of electronic enjoyment from the comfort of your couch. Then, and only then, are you an epic level controller.

Product Specifications

•Magic wand television remote for witches, wizards, and the occasional muggle
•13 magical functions (the number one would expect in magic!)
•Learns from your existing remotes
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•Flip the channel with a flick of your wand, twist your wand to turn up the volume
•Compatible with almost all makes of TV, DVR, or really anything with a remote!
•Buttons are sooooooooooooooo out, wands are in. Trust us.



SO AWESOME.