Tornado in my hometown... Actually 5 of them!

My family is ok, as well as our new home. This was their first night in it! They are currently on their way out to the old house to check on it and my cat! I will update Ya'll later.

There are reports of damaged homes but none in the ward so far.

This happened to 44 train cars in and around town. Most much worse. I have people with cameras on the situation as we speak.

This is one of my favorites. Not because it shows any damage but because these people are idiots. "Lets stand on my obviously structural roof to inspect the tornado damage." Not smart my friends, not smart.The Fairgrounds

These images don't show a lot of damage either but they do show the power of a tornado.

Why I cook

I told the fam I was coming home in a few weeks:

Dad~ "Great we can hang out and make chicken wings!

Melane~ "OOO! Could you make that popcorn... Maddie really likes it." (Right.... for Maddie)

Jarom ~"Really? Want to know why I am so excited? Because then you can make me that coffee cake."

Logan~ "Okay but don't play with my Bionicles! You don't know how to play with boy toys!"

Anyway Why do I love to cook so much? My grandma was the most amazing cook ever! She made three dinners every night. One for grandpa cause he is a really really picky eater, one for the family, and one for my dad when he got home from football practice. She would sit at the table with him and talk while he ate. She could just whip up stuff out of the blue that would blow your mind. Or so I have been told. I don't remember her really well, but I do remember her biscuits. My daddy, who is also an amazing cook, often tries to duplicate them. And while Dad's biscuits are also good I don't think he ever managed to recreate what it is he is really craving when he makes them.

My mom made this cranberry mouse every year on holidays it literally has become as much of a staple as the mashed potatoes. In fact I think it is the only thing my brother Jacob eats on holidays. And it is the one leftover we all fight over. "Hey! Hey! Who finished the cranberry mouse? I've been thinking about it all day." "That's a shame, you should have been eating it all day like I have." Poor dad I bet it sucks to have to go to work and put a roof over the heads of the people who eat all your cranberry mouse.

Mom is gone now but her mouse has survived! For years to come there will be a bowl of cranberry mouse at my table. Maybe one of my kids will make it for their family and they can fight over the leftovers and me and mom can watch from the spirit world together and try to pick out which of my grandkids are our favorites. Although it probably won't be hard, I'm sure we'll pick the naughtiest boy to be our favorite.

Growing up Dad always had a ton of church meetings. My favorite part of Sunday was cooking with dad when he got home. We would normally cook some pasta and then cut up whatever we had around the kitchen and then put some kinda sauce all over it. Something spicy and soy sauce was always our favorite. Some of the best memories I have are of sitting on the counter on Saturday morning and making pancakes with dad. Me and Katy would take turns stirring and adding the next ingredient.

I remember when Dad would teach night classes mom would say "I don't want to cook if your dad isn't here." So we would sneak over to our favorite shady Mexican restaurant in Delaware. It was a Mexican grocery store with two tables in the back. I loved that time with mom.

Why were we sitting on the counter with dad on Saturday morning? It would have been so much easier to cook them on his own. We were there because he loved us. Why didn't mom want to cook when dad was gone? Because without knowing how happy it made her husband she doesn't enjoy it as much. Did we drive all the way to Delaware for Mexican food or for great company? Is mom's cranberry mouse really the best thing we have ever had or does having it at the table mean she is still around? Why did I love cooking with Dad so much on Sunday afternoons? Because we made amazing food? Well we did but I think I just liked having dad back home where we didn't have to share his time and attention anymore.

I could go on and on. I won't lie. I think I am a great cook. I have a hard time cooking for other people though. Why? Because for me cooking is so strongly associated with love. If I cook something for someone and they don't like it I feel like my love is being rejected. Crazy? I don't think so.

Waiting for butterflies

Just recently I was "presented" with the opportunity to begin dating a young man I have known now for a few months. In the past week or so I have begun to get little inklings that this was coming.

I sometimes feel like at this point in my life, should I really be turning any worthy man away? But I realized I had to stop it ASAP when my prayers began to sound something like this: "Heavenly Father I know you have someone out there for me, and I know you have a plan for me, and I know you know me better than I know myself. But please please please don't let this be HIM!"

Now I know we hear stories all the time about people who didn't care for each other and then they fall madly in love. My parents didn't really like each other too much at first. Dad thought mom was a spoiled rich girl (not true) and she thought dad spent too much time flirting with the shallow girls. (probably true, but in his defense he says they were hot) Anyway that just isn't going to be the case here.

But tonight I had an epiphany. Would my loving father in heaven really have picked someone out for me if the thought of a relationship with him threw me into a panic? I say no. I am ready for someone I can be excited about. So you can all be excited for me. I know I am getting to be an old maid but I STILL refuse to settle! I still deserve butterflies.

Annie Hall

I am Annie Hall ... That is me. I'm named after my great-grandma Annie, who's full name is Anna Mariah Anderson.

I don't like it when I meet other people named Annie. I just feel like Annie is who I am and no one else can be me quite as well. So all the other Annies must just be imposters.

And guess what? Not only have I met another Annie Hall (not cool)... There is a movie by the same title.

It beat out Star Wars for best picture in 1977. See 5 years before I was even born and Annie Hall is already leaving people with a shocked and amazed look on their faces. It's a Woody Allen movie so I never felt a real desire to see the film. However my friend Peet rented it once and I can't tell her no.

A few quotes from the movie if you will:

Matt should enjoy this one:
Alvy: Here, you look like a very happy couple, um, are you?
Girl: Yeah.
Alvy: Yeah? So, so, how do you account for it?
Girl: Uh, I'm very shallow and empty and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say.
Male: And I'm exactly the same way.
Alvy: I see. Wow. That's very interesting. So you've managed to work out something?

Don't we all feel a little like this when we are in a too good to be true relationship?
Alvy:"I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member." That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women.

HA HA I've noticed lately that I CANNOT park my car straight!
[after Annie parks the car]
Alvy:Don't worry. We can walk to the curb from here.

I wish a guy had the nerve to do this to me. It would be so hot!
[On first date]
Alvy: Hey listen, gimme a kiss.
Annie Hall: Really?
Alvy: Yeah, why not, because we're just gonna go home later, right, and then there's gonna be all that tension, we've never kissed before and I'll never know when to make the right move or anything. So we'll kiss now and get it over with, and then we'll go eat. We'll digest our food better.

So what should my theory be for catching Ninja?
Alvy: Annie, there's a big lobster behind the refrigerator. I can't get it out. This thing's heavy. Maybe if I put a little dish of butter sauce here with a nutcracker, it will run out the other side.

This feels like frequent conversations I have in my singles branch.
Duane: Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist,I think you'll understand. Sometimes when I'm driving... on the road at night... I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of the flowing gasoline.
Alvy Singer: Right. Well, I have to - I have to go now, Duane, because I, I'm due back on the planet Earth.

HA HA it's actually kinda a funny movie.

The final lines from Annie Hall:

Alvy: After that it got pretty late, and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again. I... I realized what a terrific person she was, and... and how much fun it was just knowing her; and I... I, I thought of that old joke, y'know, the, this... this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs." Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships; y'know, they're totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, and... but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it because, uh, most of us... need the eggs.

To Peet: Annie Hall does leave New York in the end... But she will always be your favorite Mormon girl.

P.S. I need the eggs!

Would you rather...

I can't remember if it was the Summer of the cousins or the summer of the J-LOs but we use to LOVE to play "would you rather" and "If" In fact I still have a post it note with a few of them written and stuck in my scriptures. Oh and that night with Linds, Dewey, and Rose out back on the swing with my If book... that is a memory I won't forget anytime soon. Here are a few of my favorites:

WYR... have a pencil sharpening belly button or ketchup dispensing nostril?
WYR... be a super villain called "the pharmacist" or the god of upholstery?
WYR... have eyebrows that move around your face or leave a trail of paprika wherever you go?
WYR... be immune to red eyes in pictures or have expert precision when opening Capri Sun's?
WYR... have to watch with your friends a video of every fight you ever had with your siblings or parents?

My picks: Ketchup, super villain, paprika, and Capri Sun opener, sibs

Scary Scariness

I know from time to time as woman we make things out to be much scarier than they really are. That may factor in here, as well as the fact that it was dark and cold and rainy, but I am not making it up!

I got off work at 9 last night and when I pulled into the parking lot at my apartment I noticed that the truck that had followed me across 17th had pulled into the spot next to mine. It was totally a truck from unsolved mysteries! You know a three colored ford truck from the 70's, that was barely making it down the road still. I didn't think much of it so I grabbed my purse and headed inside.

But I got inside and realized that Katy wasn't home, so I went to text her and find out where she was and realized I had left my phone in the car. So I ran out to the car to get it and left my front door open. I got back in my car and realized their where two guys in the truck and they were yelling at each other. Yelling is a bit of an understatement actually, and their language would have made.... well my grandpa blush. So I can hear everything they are saying and apparently they were really mad at some Brandon and one wanted to kill him and one wanted to kill himself.

I wasn't really sure how to get back into the house without them noticing me. I didn't want to be the new target. Don't worry though that is when they decided to drag each other out of the truck and start beating the life out of each other on the grass in front of my door! I would have just driven away but my front door was not only unlocked but open a crack! So I drove around to the front where I thought maybe I could get to my door without them seeing me and make a run for it.

So I did and they stopped and watched me. I probably should have ran in and shut the door but I didn't want to be there so I just locked the door shut it and ran back to my car. I heard one of them say "What does she think she's doing?!" But I just ran to my car and drove the half a block to Matt's where we watched a sweet movie and ate his amazing cobbler.

I bet you do...

I was helping this customer today and everything I would say to him he would say " mmmmm I bet you do" or "I bet you are." Always with a naughty tone and at the end he was licking his lips a little. For example:

"How are you doing can I help you find something?"
"Ummmm I bet you can."

"I'll do my best what was it you needed?"
"Ummm I bet you will."

"So you just needed a toilet down? Let me see if I can find you a cart."
"ummm I bet you will."

At the end there it wasn't even making sense anymore and I just really really wanted to get away from him.

Oh and yesterday a customer told me he found the perfect man for me. One that is a little bit wild. I told him I wasn't sure I could tame wild and he said "Honey sometimes you just sit back and enjoy wild."

A little intro, if you will...

I'm not going to pretend like this time of year isn't hard for me. I thought it would get better with time but you know what? This year is the hardest yet. You people who have expressed to me how upset you are that you have to call your mom, or go to her place for dinner, or find her a gift. Shame on you!

Most of my friends like my mom better than me. I'm not kidding. For those of you who met me after mom was gone and only get to experience her hauntings I hope that you know her at least a little because you know me.

But here is a little help:

*She is the perfect mixture of mom and best friend
*She took in anything, man or beast, that was hurting and tried everything she could to get rid of their owies.
*She sees beauty in ALL of God's creations, including southern Wyoming.
*She always made me listen to Chris Ledoux while driving through southern Wyoming. (especially western skies)
*She had a constant need for learning
*She had a thing for animal control guys.
*She loves her husband
*Nothing was too spicy for her
*She swore she would go inactive if the church ever banned chocolate
*She loves Chile Renos and when she made them she would guard them with her life, if you touched one you would probably get a hand bitten off.
*She believes there is a special place reserved in heaven for cowboys
*She is an amazing teacher
*She won't watch a movie unless something explodes or John Wayne is in it
*She believes without laughter, fun, and a little naughtiness life is barely worth living.
*She loves a good book and read to us every night
*She loves Home Depot and Builder's warehouse. If she says she'll be a few minutes count on a couple of hours and that she will carry around some kind of power tool for an extended period of time.
*She believed each of her children needed and deserved individual time and attention
*She wants every detail of every date I have ever been on.
*She loved anything that looked country that she could put on the porch. I started to wonder if we were going to reach a point where there wouldn't be room for us on the porch.
*She loves to sit on the porch and listen to the rain and thunder.