Mark Twain's Wisdom

Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

Pet Peeves

1. People who drive under the speed limit. I'm not asking them to speed; just go the speed limit or get out of my way!
2. Cupboard doors and drawers left open. It looks so messy and only takes a second to close. (Unless it's our "pencil" drawer that for some reason when you pull it open the stapler, rulers, tape and other things jump up so you have to force it closed.)
3. Cars who pull out in front of you even though there is no one behind you for half a mile.
4. People who are still misinformed about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and think we are polygamists.
5. People who text while they're driving. Family members, you know who you are!
6. Mother-in-law jokes. I always wondered why my Mom hated them until I became a mother-in-law myself.
7. Parents screaming at their kids in public. It makes me wonder what happens in their homes.
8. Bloggers who never comment on other's blogs.
9. People who have so many pet peeves that they write a blog about it. What are your pet peeves?

Cruisin'

Our ward had the funnest Hawaiian Cruise party for Valentine's Day last night. Our activities committee is the best. The food, games and entertainment were so much fun. They had a "Dating Game" that was hilarious. Naomi and her date Will and Kent entered the limbo contest. Naomi won!

We had a lot of fun playing bingo with candy hearts.

Kent and I had a Hawaiian party two nights in a row. On the 13th we went to a high council party and had delicious grilled shish kabobs. I can't wait for the foot of snow to clear off of the grill so we can make our own.

Resolution & Random Things

Yay! Direct TV and KJZZ resolved their issues and we now have KJZZ again. I was able to watch the Bonnie Hunt Show and the Doctors today! Of course I was just listening because I was preparing an agenda and updating rosters for Pack Planning Meeting that was tonight. Two hours! Pack Meeting is in two weeks and it's the annual Blue and Gold Banquet so there was extra planning. Hopefully next month's will be the promised hour.

Bonnie Hunt mentioned Facebook and the post about "25 Random Things About Me" that has been going around. I thought that was pretty interesting since I and most of my family and friends on Facebook did that post last week. She mentioned a Time magazine article. I looked it up and this is what it said:

"Facebook's "25 Things About Me" meme seems harmless enough; people write 25 facts about themselves and post them on their Facebook pages, just as they do with videos, status updates and photos of last weekend's party. An estimated 5 million of these notes — that's 125 million facts — have appeared on the website within the past week. Assuming it takes someone 10 minutes to come up with their list, this recent bout of viral narcissism has sent roughly 800,000 hours of worktime productivity down the drain."

I just thought that was interesting. The rest of the article was very negative. Myself, I enjoyed learning random things about my "Friends".

A Big Dose of Reality

It occurred to me last night that I am addicted to reality TV. We have a DVR and the only shows that I record are talk shows and reality shows. Kent has it set to record "Crusoe" once a week and I watch that with him, but otherwise, these are the only shows I watch:

I used to watch these shows until KJZZ pulled out of Direct TV and we don't get that channel anymore:

So what does it say about me that I watch a lot of reality TV? Here are some possibilities I came up with:

1. There are a lot of reality shows on TV. If you're going to waste your time watching TV like I do, (not fully watching because I'm usually on my laptop too, and I fast forward through the commercials so it takes less time) you're going to watch some reality TV.

2. The only other options on TV are crime series (not my cup of tea) and garbage series. I apologize to all "Office" fans. I'm sure that show has some good points. I have personally not found them. I didn't get hooked in the beginning and now if I try to watch it, it seems dumb and crude to me. Just my opinion. I know many people felt the same way about Gilmore Girls, a series I was addicted to and hated to see end.

3. There is something I find very interesting about other people's lives. We all have our differences but deep down we just want to be loved. At least I think the people on "True Beauty" feel that way. They sure love themselves enough!

4. There is a sense of being a part of people's lives and sharing in their disappointments, mistakes, triumphs, etc. Way to go Bachelor Jason for sending the right girl home this week!

5. These shows are also educational. From "Jon and Katie Plus 8" I learn how not to talk to my husband, but also how to be better organized. From "17 and Counting" I've learned all sorts of things. Including being thankful I only have 6 kids. Those Duggars are amazing though! My family is probably happy that I can't watch "The Doctors" anymore because I was constantly sharing medical tips. I did watch a boot camp for potty training and gave Nanette some pointers that will hopefully be helpful.

Is anyone else addicted to reality TV? Do you have any explanations for its appeal?

Non-shopaholic

This post is dedicated to the man in my life who is not a shopper, but who has a lot of patience. We mosied home from Boise/Nampa today but we were barely on the road before we requested to stop at the outlet stores. Katie and I loved the Carter's store. Man you could spend a fortune in there, and yet the prices were good. It was hard to choose. The nice thing was that there were just as many boy's clothes as girl's. We weren't quite as impressed with the Osh Kosh store. Then we went to Shopko (I know, we have one at home) because Katie is looking for a crib set and they've discontinued the one she wants. We were hoping to find a random one. No such luck, but they had some great clearance racks. Kent played solitaire on his Blackberry and followed us around. When we moved to a new section we'd get his attention. When we finally got to the check out line he collapsed on a bench and Katie took this picture:

Our shopping in Boise only added 2 hours to the trip which I thought was pretty good. After a drive through lunch in Mountain Home our next stop was the Magic Valley Mall in Twin Falls. It wasn't too magical though. We came out of Shopko empty handed (Kent appreciated that) and Sears didn't have any Noah's Ark crib sets either. Katie did buy the cutest high top Converse like baby shoes. All in all, Braiden made the biggest haul on this trip and he's not even born yet. When I mentioned to Kent that I didn't buy a single thing for myself he said, "No, Ethan and Logan get the most these days." He's right. Soon I can buy matching outfits for three! We're back in cold, snowy, Smithfield. I handed out new t-shirts to Nick and Caleb (who handled bachelorhood very well with Naomi's help) and showed Caleb the sweater I bought him for church. He says he might wear it. I'll keep you posted.

Amazing Snow

Kent, Katie and I are on a mini vacation to the Boise/Nampa area to visit Grandpa Jensen and Grandma Donna. We took a side trip with them to McCall, Idaho to see some amazing snow sculptures. It is the end of the winter festival there. We drove Katie's Explorer and Grandpa J. insisted on riding in the back seat. He was so cute back there with his jaunty cap that we had to take a picture:

Some of the ice sculptures were huge (40 feet) and unbelievably detailed. Here are some of our favorites:

Here are 3 people who are worth a million bucks:

Bind-a-Blog

Last week I took the time to copy and paste all of my blog entries from 2008 into Word. Then I printed, punched and bound and - ta da: I am published. Kind of. There's only one copy and I own it, but it feels good to have some history of 2008 since I didn't keep a journal. I've printed Nanette and Katie's blogs for them too and they are in the process of binding their blogs.