Congrats David and Kerstin!

Little Isabelle was born last night - her birthday is one day after Andrews! Talk about big birthday week for David and Kerstin!

CONGRATULATIONS GUYS! Love you!

Alexa's CRAZY story

So things have been happening here.

Work: I got a promotion at my job, and the union signed a new contract with Kennecott giving Eric a new raise schedule.

Washington: Eric and I went to WA to see Wicked, watch General Conference, go to Stephanie's setting apart to be a missionary, and, of course, go to Las Margaritas.

Utah: Wednesday, I took Stephanie to the MTC, and yesterday, Alexa decided to drive down to Utah.

Now...I haven't been blogging because my mom's birthday is coming up, and she wants my blog in a book. I'm using Blurb for it. But blogspot got rid of all of my pictures from entries past a few months ago, so putting the book together requires finding all the pictures on my computer and hard drive. This takes a LONG time. Out of 310 pages, I'm on 71...it sucks. SOOOO, I haven't been in the best blogging mood - but I have to post this!

So in my letter to Stephanie today, I write:

Yo - so best story ever! Are you ready for this? lol

So Alexa decided to drive down here to see Danielle, oh and me, and I think she is going to try to stalk you at the MTC. Noah, Danielle's boyfriend, came down with her. I told her to call me when she was in Ogden. When she called me, in the middle of the conversation, she starts saying things like are you okay!? push the clutch in! are you okay? are you okay?

Then she says, um, Jackie? A rock just went through our windshield.

All I'm thinking is... a rock? Wow. That's some big rock.

I tell her to pull over -she says she already is. So then I go talk to Eric, and he says rocks aren't supposed to go through windshields. And I said, she says there is glass in her mouth. So we all discuss how big the hole is. Alexa says its the size of her hand. Eric says to just get to a gas station, buy some tape, and tape it up and drive here.

In the mean while, Alexa is checking out the car, when she says, JACKIE, it was a trailer hitch! I tell that to Eric, and now he understands how this happened, and kept saying, you tell your sister to say a grateful prayer that she is still alive.

So Alexa drives the car to a gas station, and gets some tape. In the meanwhile, I also have her call the cops to make sure they can get some kind of case number for her - just in case insurance asks for it. They sent me a picture of the hole in the windshield too - I'll have to mail it to you when we take some better ones. It's seriously a crazy thing her and Noah are alive. A TRAILER HITCH!

So, the cops come, and at first, didn't believe that they needed to come, but then saw it, and were like OH MY GOSH! So, they give her a case number, and we tell Alexa we will drive up, and get AAA to get a tow truck. But the cop never said Alexa couldn't drive the car (believe me, she shouldn't be driving it), so Alexa met us half way. We got to her at a 7-11, and Eric now became the celica driver. He taped the windshield up more before leaving, and then we all left. He was supposed to stay behind me, but instead thought it would be safe (even though he can only see out the car by putting his head all the way to the left) to drive fast and away from us. So he did....and got home a few moments before us.

She called the insurance this morning, and the lady said, um, what happened? She said a trailer hitch went her windshield...the line goes completely silent, and the lady says, uhhhhhh wow. Okay.

It was funny.

PS When Alexa and I were driving the jetta, and Eric and Noah were in the celica, we went through a construction zone. A truck pulled behind me, in front of the celica, so I slowed down so he would get out of the way. He did, moving to the left lane - there were only two lanes. In front of the truck, was one car, which he couldn't get by to pass in front of me. So he decided to just pull to the side and try to run into my car. Alexa screams JACKIE, and I honk at him, and he swerves back in his lane. As we pass him, he honks at US! WHAT? Moron. It still makes me angry - Utah drivers are just SOOOO dumb!!!

Anywho, I'm sure I'll tell you more when we know more. Love you girl!


PS Make a commitment to be happy today! Let the wrongs and things done against you, just fly off your back! BE HAPPY!!

AND watch for trailer hitches.

And now for pictures - seriously, it's WAY worse than it sounds!

The picture that Noah sent me from his phone, so we could get the best idea of what size the hole was. :)

The dents put into the body of the car:

The car (with the tape). We took off the tape to give you more of an idea for the rest of the pictures.
The glass on the driver side floor:
The glass in the back seat - yes it went this far!
The hole:
Alexa's face by the hole - it's a big hole.
Can you see where Alexa is sitting? It's a miracle they aren't both more severely hurt.
The trailer hitch:

The inside of the car:

Insurance should be getting back with Alexa today, and hopefully fixing the windshield so she can get back to Idaho. We are just glad her and Noah are safe!!!!!

Best phrase of the day

Today Natalie, Ethan, Kade and Addi came over for dinner, and then we went and saw Jixie (who, by the way, has started growing her winter coat, and now is as soft as can be, but looks like a wooly mammoth).

While eating dinner, Kade turns to me and tells me that the dinner is so good. Then he says "its life changing." ::laughs hysterically::

That's right - my food is life changing! :)

A busy week

Eric and I have been pretty busy lately. And since I haven't posted at all - here I go!

First, some of you may know that we had to get a new driveway. To make a long story short, we had to prove to the same person about four times, getting him in trouble with his manager about three times, and then last week finding out that our development might have a law suit against them because of the concrete, that our driveway was 1 to 2 inches instead of the 4 to 5 it should be. After a long painful process of showing them that, they took out our whole driveway, and now we have a new one!


Adelaide came and rode Jixie! She had so much fun! Davey, Megan - she's welcome any time!
She got all dressed up for the occasion too! HOW CUTE!
On Labor Day, Eric, Angela, Eric's sister Kristie, and I all went on a hike to Stewart Falls.
This is Roxy... she's so dang cute.
Tucker with Eric and Eric and Ange's dogs - Gracie and Jackson.
Tucker - he's only sitting still for me because I'm about to throw him a rock. haha
On Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, Eric's friend Rick, came and picked up Jixie and we all went for a trail ride. She did sooooo well! I freaked a bit on one part where I thought we would fall off the mountain but TRUST YOUR HORSE is all I can say.
I'm riding Jix - here is her head.
The view off the top - gorgeous.
For lunch, Eric made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and cut it out like a dinosaur. Isn't he the best?
After we got home from that, we headed up to Rexburg where my sister Alexa had just been for one day. It was so fun to see her!

Hannah, Alexa's roomie, and Alexa, and a mexican restaurant we went to. I still love Las Margaritas better than any mexican restaurant, and it will be one of the first things I do when I get home this weekend.

Me and Lexi in her living room. I just love BYU dorm walls. haha
After Rexburg, Eric was back at work for the next few days, so we didn't have anything TOO exciting go on. But Saturday, Eric took me on a date to this jeep thing where they all climbed on this car and then we ate at Callie's Cafe for free!

And yes, that's my sexy man on top of that car. :)


That's all for now!

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Today is my sister's birthday! HAPPY 21st!!!

They are going to Las Margaritas tonight, and I'm jealous!

Also, on her birthday, years ago, the twin towers came down.

I want to take this moment to remember the families who were hurt by this personally, and men, women, and children on the planes that had to sacrifice their lives.

I want to thank God for this beautiful country and the freedoms we enjoy, which we should never take for granted.

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!

The ones I love

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.

It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list.. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her.

'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Mark talked about you a lot.'

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'

Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'

I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my diary'

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

Before I'm 30

As some of you know, I LOVE the tv show Friends.
One of my favorite episodes is when they go over each friend and how they acted on their 30th birthday. Phoebe has a bunch of things she wants to do before she turns each age, but in this episode, you see her riding a hippity-hop for a mile, and it was the last thing she wanted to do before she turned 30 (even though you find out she is 31 in this episode). So I think about this a lot when I think of the things I want to accomplish in the next few years, so I decided to make a list of things I want to do before I'm 30. I have seven years to complete this.

1. Go back to school for something. I love school, and would go for the rest of my life if I was paid to! But for now, I have decided I just want to go back to be back in school - whether I use it for a career or not. So, right now majoring in education to be a school teacher and also majoring in photography to add more to my photography skills are on the top of the list. That doesn't leave out my childhood occupations of a vet. :)
2. Get a full length book published - probably the one I started when I was in 9th grade.
3. Get a children's book published.
4. Make my own cd with my own songs on it, and take to a publisher or radio station to see what they think.
5. Have a successful business - probably a photography business since Angela and I have started one. :)
6. Finish an off-roading trail magazine.
7. Complete an Iron Man.
8. Play a part in a tv show or commercial.
9. Do this with Jixie: click here

And that's all for now - so, my original goals that I made back in May for my 23rd year will hopefully help complete these things before I'm 30!

So again, goal review time (mostly for me to stay motivated - it's like I'm accountable to all of you!)

- I've been running and biking still - Poor Tucker came bike riding the other day and hurt the pads on his paws. I feel so bad for him! I'm going to have to find a way to swim more.
- Viola and Violin are still a go - keeping it up - I will audition next year for the orchestra, instead of this year, even though they extended my audition so I could get my viola from my sister. I just feel too rusty. So private lessons for now, and next year, I'll audition.

- I didn't get any comments on my book blog, so I decided just to anchor down and get it done without advice. I've started going over it again, and changing some of it for the better. It's a work in progress. My friend gave me a publisher to take my children's book to, so I'll be doing that soon - just need to make the last few changes.

- Eric and I are mapping my first trail tomorrow, and taking the photos! :) I'll need a better camera for when I actually make them magazine worthy, but for now, I've decided just to pitch it to people and see what they think! I'm so excited! YAY! Also, I've successfully taken photos for 90 days, but now just need the money! :)

- Angela and I have our first real, PAID, photo shoot on Saturday! Way to go business!!

I hope to have some of these things accomplished the next time I write about them - more to report later! :)