Spiritual Sunday - A little Christmas Spirit

Spiritual Sunday you say? But don't you know M-Cat that it's Friday? Oops-a-doodle.

I have been seriously lacking any Christmas Spirit. Bah Humbug has been my anthem since before Thanksgiving. The tree went up because it was supposed to, not because I had any desire. It's just been one of those years.

While packing for my long drive to St George earlier this week, I grabbed the small box of Christmas CD's {just in case}.

About Fillmore, I popped in my soundtrack to The Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean. My heart softened and wouldncha know it... I found it. I found the Spirit. Right there on ugly old I-15.

The rousing song he has included the past several years at the end of his production, sung by the AMAZING Katie Thompson, is my absolute favorite. It gives me chills every.single.time.

Today is two weeks until Christmas. 3 weeks until my son comes home. Yeah, my cold, black, hard heart is getting all kinds of soft and mushy. And I may or not may not have shed some tears watching this video. Why does a picture of young boys holding a loaf of bread, or young men in white shirts, ties and name tags make me bawl like a baby?

It's the Spirit. Christmas or otherwise.

I love this song. I love it as a Christmas Carol. I love it as a song of praise and glory to the God I worship whose birthday we are about to celebrate.



Try and tell ME you didn't choke up. Just a tich.

Winter in Utah

salt lick anyone?

Slang Gang Word of the Day

December 11: Canadian Refrigerator

A bank or pile of snow during the colder months of winter, where food or beverage products (namely soda) can be stored. Great for parties.

"Are we out of Diet Coke?"
"There's plenty in the Canadian refrigerator."

**C'mon, who hasn't done this?"

Funny Bone Friday - Things I may have heard, or said, or just thought in my head

Is that gonna involve a lot of meat?

You can go inside my boots if you want.

Out of my desperation, I took the liberty of rummaging through your drawers.

Splenda singing one single note. Tuffy: "Did you just hear a boar being gutted?"

I hate just spitting stones

Don't make me do charity!

The Twilight Series - My Official Review

Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn

Yes, four books in the series. Four LONG books. The genre? Fantasy and romance. I think. Maybe some sci-fi in there?

I was issued a challenge by Sharks BFF Nicole. I was bagging on the books, calling them all stupid and she told me she would pay me a $100.00 if I would just read the series.
I debated. I really had no interest, but hey, a hunert bucks is a hunert bucks for crying out loud.

It was a challenge. I RARELY back down from a challenge. Just.too.competitive. I bet you didn't know that about me did you? Competitive enough to take the challenge and to be fair and open minded about it.

To begin with let me state for the record: I hate fantasy, and I hate cheesy romance (which is basically all romance). I prefer biography's. Factual stories. No fiction. Which as a side note, I wonder why that is? Me, of all people, would desperately want to escape reality, but instead I prefer to read REAL things. Maybe that is why I enjoy blogs. But it digress......

I knew going into the challenge that it would be hard. It would be hard for me to set aside reality and let myself immerse in the fantasy. Allow myself to be open minded and read it for what it was.

Okay, all declarations done. And instead of going book by book, I am going to review the series as a whole with a few specific notes.

IT.SUCKED.

The end.








Okay, not really the end.

Let's discuss.
REALLY? I mean REALLY? Vampires? C'MON! Werewolves? Oh, I'm sorry, they are SHAPE SHIFTERS. Dumb, dumb, and dumber.

Bella? I hate her. I found nothing about her to respect or like. She is whiny and inconsistent. At one moment, she is saying she doesn't want to be "one of THOSE girls" who marry right out of high school, and in the next breath she is begging to be made a vampire. She is more than willing to make out all the time and even offers herself for some nuky nuk, but doesn't want to get married? What about all the time she is clearly leading on Jacob? Really skank-eroo, you clearly had your feelings confused for him but you knew what you were doing to him too. UGH. By book four, and reading about her attempt to save her daughter, I still was extremely disappointed in her. It was clearly more important that she be with Edward FOREVER. Sure she made sure that Renesmee (stupid name BTW) was going to be safe, but her heart was truly and completely with Edward. What kind of mother is that? I find her a terrible role model for girls and if I had a 12- 16 year old daughter, I would be disappointed if she wanted to get on this craze of the series. To my YW - no, no and more no!!!

Edward? Ummmmmm.......not really sure what to say about him, other than I sure don't get the lovefest for him. Sure he is attempting to be some sort of gentleman in his demands to marry her first, but then the night before, he goes to her room for some practice? What about when he offers to SHARE Bella with Jacob. Huh? And seriously, what kind of dude REALLY has the self control that he seemed to have for 3 entire books? He sits in her room every night watching her sleep and he tries nothing? Haven't heard of that before in any kind of man. By book four, I really kind of was completely OVER him. And the actor they have playing him in the movies? Doesn't seem to be the kind of Edward I would have imagined. Lose the freakin lipstick!

Jacob - Likeable. More likeable than any other character in the book (other than Carlisle). However, he reminded me of a puppy who keeps getting kicked and then coming back for more. I wished he had more backbone. But that being said, I found him the character that I was cheering for the most and hoped for his happiness the most.

The rest of the characters we'll just kind of lump together. None of them drew me to them in a sympathetic manner at all. Not likeable. Some kind of bugged each time they entered the story, others just seemed to be sidebars to keep some sort of dialogue going, and others just downright IRRITATED me. Like Charlie. Me no likey the Charlie. Alice had me for most of the series, but then by book 4, she lost me.

Overall the story? For a fantasy, I suppose it was well done. I don't have a lot to compare with since, as mentioned before, it's not my genre. I had a problem with a wolf imprinting on a baby. That was sick and WRONG. Yet, I will admit when Jacob imprinted on Renesmee, it made more sense to me. That seemed to wrap all that up for me with he and Bella's feelings for each other.
I will say that the final book seemed so utterly outlandish that I pretty much laughed and scoffed my way through it. The wedding seemed to have been skimmed over. The honeymoon seemed more full of anger from Edward than romantic and love filled. And the final fight scene? A dud. A fizzle. Nada, nothing, zip.

So there you have it. I did it. I read all four books. Yes, I did find myself getting sucked into the story and vested into seeing how it all ended. I tried hard to set aside reality and enjoy the fantasy, but it just seemed so silly. I think I have a hard time when reality is mixed in with the fantasy. For example, if she had them all on a vampire planet with vampire whatever's......and not in the real world I might have been able to accept it fully as a fantasy. Instead when you mix real people with non-real people, I just had a hard time with it.

But I will concede, I totally get why people love it. I do. It's a great love story. It all ends happily ever after. Everybody gets what they wanted. It all wraps up in a nice tight bow. I really understand why young women go crazy for it. It is clearly written for them and I also see why adult women love it as well. It's a romantic fantasy that you can easily lose yourself in. I'm just not one of those women.

So Nicole, I did it. I completed the challenge. On one hand, I would like to say I want all those hours of reading back. On the other, I now can say I've read it, I get the reason for all the hooly-roo about it, but for me, no. Nope. Nope. Nope.

I will even let you off the hook for the $100.00, but if you feel like you still need to pony up, please donate it to the JDRF for the Shark's big rides next year.

And Nicole, thanks for making me do it. Thanks for making me step outside of my comfort zone. Thanks for the opportunity to just read. Read words. Read a story. Exercise my mind. Thanks for reminding me exactly why I hate fantasy and romance. And finally, I thank you and love you for issuing the challenge.

The. End.

Tickle Me Pink Tuesday

I am absolutley tickled by the email and video that my BFC sent me yesterday. She asked me to post this and what my BFC asks for, she gets!

This wasn't a hard request to fill since as you know I am HUGE proponent of breast cancer research and the causes that go with it. This post here might remind you of how it has touched my own life and why it is so important to me.

I've snoped the email and find it to be valid:
Here’s the story behind the video…

“Our daughter-in-law, Emily (MacInnes) Somers, created, directed and choreographed this in Portland last week for her Medline glove division as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. This was all her idea to help promote their new pink gloves.

I don't know how she got so many employees, doctors and patients to participate, but it started to really catch on and they all had a lot of fun doing it.

When the video gets 1 million hits, Medline will be making a huge contribution to the hospital, as well as offering free mammograms for the community. Please check it out. It's an easy and great way to donate to a wonderful cause, and who hasn't been touched by breast cancer?

Ann Somers

Throw something pink on, turn the volume up and dance along -it's super fun and I love watching the people who clearly are out of their comfort zone dancing. BUT they did it anyway, knowing it was for a good cause!



Or you can go here for the YouTube hit.


And since it's a new month, have you done your check? If not, get on it! Give those ta-ta's a good once over!

Monday Missionary Update

Parents, Well another week gone by and things are going good here in Chile. This week went by really really fast and so has the misison. I am glad to hear that things are going good back home and was really happy to get some of the pics that you guys sent to me, especially of the whole family. Wow you guys look just a little bit different. Corbin I think is the most that has changed that I have seen in this last time. Just so you guys know we are doing great on the tower of pizza. We are at 24 boxes of pizza and it is just a little bit more than half way. Thanks for the weather update date. It is getting hot here. The rays are really strong so the heat just beats on ya. I guess that it is good this was the last week here in chile that I am going to do a fast haha jk. It was kinda hard though with the no water thing. Also dad, good call about studying. I think that I am just going with what I want more than what would be smarter. I am pretty sure that I am going to just wait to study. I just hope that I could get a good job, that is my only worrry, and especially one that will help pay for my schooling. I am glad that you are doing a lot better with your leg and stuffy mom. It really has had me worried. I bet by the end of the month or somehing it will be all good to go! Speaking of injuries we went to visit a less active member that was in the hospital because he got ran over by a car and had to get metal plates put in his legs. He showed us and it was pretty grose. I am not going to lie, the experience here in Chile at the hospitals, are just well...gross. Okay here is the update with the call for Navidad. We have the 24 25 or 26 to talk to eachother, in one of those days. You guys can choose, I think it would be good to call for Navidad though. And the call would be at about 4:00 in the after noon soo...... but if anything changes I will defiantley let you guys know. Okay and to answer your quesiton, what do I want for Chistmas?? Anything is good for me, but I guess if I have to choose, I guess I would just want a new phone for when I get back. Thats it haha. I love you guys sooo much, seriuosly, thanks for all that you do and have done for me. I miss you guys, and will see you guys soon!!
Elder Catmull

**less than 4 weeks!!**