Happy Halloween!

Tonight I got to see my sweet nieces and nephew all dressed up and so excited to go trick or treating. I came home for about an hour to hand out candy. I guess I am a Halloween Grinch of sorts -- it is not my favorite holiday. I love to see the little kids come -- they are fun. However, once they start coming as middle-schoolers and high-schoolers, I am done.

McKay and Rachel took their kids over to mom and dad's neighborhood so Corrine and I went over there to see them. As Rachel mentioned in her blog, a few weeks ago the girls found grandma's dress up box. Tonight all three kids wore a costume from that box! I love how McKay and Mac were both wearing Superman. Mac even left it on! So fun!

After we saw the kids Corrine and I spent the rest of the evening working on preparations for tomorrow's Prop 8 efforts. Even though it was work, I enjoyed the social interaction with the other gals there helping out. Rain is predicted in the forecast for the evening - should be interesting.

Tolerance? What does it really mean?

So this past week has been quite interesting. I have been helping with the campaigning for Proposition 8 here in CA. We have been standing on corners waving signs, holding banners, etc. I have done it multiple times in the evening after work. Last week I did it from 7-8 in the morning; this week I will be doing it morning and evening Tuesday - Thursday. Last Saturday I spent two hours participating.

It has been quite an enlightening experience. There are so many that are confused on this issue. So many who think that we are "against homosexuals" or who think of "homosexuals" as our enemies, and that individuals who have entered into "gay marriages" pose a direct personal threat to us. This is NOT the case. Proposition 8 doesn't take away any rights or benefits from gay or lesbian domestic partners. Under CA law, they "shall have the same rights, protections and benefits" as married spouses. It just wouldn't be called marriage.

In my participation I have been told repeatedly I am not tolerant. I stop to question what tolerance really means. Recently Orson Scott Card wrote an article and stated it perfectly, "Only when a gay friend demanded that I agree with his or her point of view or cease to be friends has the friendship ended. What is odd is that in every case they called me intolerant. They misunderstood the meaning of tolerance. 'Tolerance implies disagreement -- it means that even though we don't agree with or approve of each others beliefs or actions, we can still live together amicably. When we agree, we aren't being tolerant, we're being uniform. It's uniformity or submission these former friends wanted, not tolerance at all.'"

I have not heard such vulgarity yelled at me since I was in high school. I have not seen so many explicit gestures in my life. On Saturday one young girl decided that 'mooning' us would be the way to get us to agree with her. It didn't work. I was called a "Christian Zealot" and I was told I would 'burn in hell". Interesting! Tonight as Stacey and I stood on a corner holding a large banner I felt the wind move right between us. It startled me. A car in the far left-hand turning lane threw a salt shaker at us. Gratefully, it didn't hit either of us. Now, I ask, is this really tolerant? Apparently I don't have the freedom to express my views since they don't align with theirs! It is so hypocritical! Wow! We are living through prophetic times! I am grateful to have the knowledge of the Book of Mormon! Talk about the 'large and spacious building' and the people who are mocking, scorning, and pointing fingers! Well, I will continue to 'hold to the rod' and press forward! I want the prize in the end!

PS For those who know me well know that when I get overwhelmed or feel stressed, I usually get cold sores. Well, you may notice a 'nice' cold sore on my lip! I am calling this one "prop 8"!

Memories

On Wednesday I came home for a few minutes and got some cookie dough out of the freezer. I was surprised to see that it didn't seem frozen. I thought maybe the door wasn't closed tight. I felt the meat but it seemed to be frozen still. When I came home that night Corrine mentioned she thought the freezer door was left open because a few things were thawed. We cleared out the damaged products and thought it was done. Last night Corrine came home and the freezer was even worse. We knew we had a problem. This morning Corrine opened the refrigerator to get some milk and found it too was broken -- nothing was cold. I called our appliance man to take a look at it and found the relay on the compressor was broken. A couple hundred dollars later we have a refrigerator again.

When he pulled out the refrigerator I had a little pause -- this picture shows what I saw. Corrine, Rachel & Brock painted our kitchen before we moved in. They put their initials and the date on the wall so we would always remember it. I had forgotten until I saw this! What a great memory!

Proposition 8 in California

Tonight Corrine and I had an interesting experience. Corrine is the zip code leader for our zip code. Therefore, any requests for a sign will come to her. Tonight, we delivered some signs. All of the signs were replacement signs because people had reported their signs as stolen. One house we went to has had four signs stolen. The gentlemen is determined to keep putting them up.

One gentlemen talked about freedom of speech. This freedom gives him the right to put a sign in his yard, the opposition is trying to take that right away because his speech doesn't reflect their own. Very interesting.

The last house we went to was my favorite. They too had a sign stolen. His children were quite upset at this fact and couldn't believe someone would actually take the sign from their yard. When he returned he found that his children had made their own sign (see picture). Corrine and I thought this was great! Hope you enjoy.


I also received this link to a You Tube video. It is a very simplified version of what proposition 8 is all about. Hope you enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zbpDe_QhS0

Celine Dion Concert - Unbelievable!

My cousin Lynette gave me a great Christmas gift last year. She had two tickets to the Celine Dion concert and asked if I was willing to come with her. Of course, my answer was YES. I was excited to see the concert but had no idea what to expect. I have only been to country concerts and not really that many. I was completely overwhelmed! It was absolutely wonderful! It totally exceeded my expectations!
The concert was held at Arco Arena (home of the Sacramento Kings). It has two levels and we were in the top level. However, the way she had the stage and screens set up was great! She had screens all around the arena and we were sitting at eye level of the screen and so we could really see everything well. She used the entire stage and was absolutely wonderful!
There were only about three songs she sang I was not able to sing along with. It was so much fun! I cannot even describe how great it was! For those of you who live close by, I have a couple of videos you can see. Unfortunately, I can't upload them because they are too long.
As she left the stage (after two encore numbers) she walked slowly through the crowd shaking hands, etc. She was really quite gracious. What an amazing opportunity. THANK YOU LYNETTE & thanks to her husband Jason and kids! I had an absolute blast.
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Birthday Celebration with Lynette

Prior to the Celine concert I told Lynette I would take her to dinner for her birthday. She got to choose the location. We talked about getting a great meal (with a HUGE splurge) at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. This is a wonderful place to eat, but not so friendly on the pocket book so I only go on special occasions. We found one in Roseville and headed there for dinner.
Lynette had a good chuckle because I made her take a picture in front of the sign because this is the first time she had been there. So I am a little cheesy! It was a very yummy dinner and was a great preparation for the Celine concert. Thanks for a fun night Lynette!

Aunt "Aweesa"

On Sunday Jared asked me when I was going to take pictures of him. He saw me taking so many pictures of TJ at his football game. I took a few pictures of him on Sunday before church.
He was so cute doing a bunch of things for me to take a picture of. He wanted me to take a picture of him "doing tricks" on the trampoline. His parents said he needed to wait until Monday. This morning I decided to take a video instead because I wanted to capture him saying my name! I love to hear it! Hope you enjoy the video!

I left Yuba City today and drove to Turlock to meet up with Lynette and her family. She and her two youngest met me a Chili's for lunch. I then stayed the night with them. I enjoyed visiting with them and we even made homemade Oreo cookies together. The kids were really excited. The biggest disappointment of the day was the Dodgers loss!!

Sunday with the Yuba City Barlows - Go Dodgers!

This morning I awoke to little boys calling "Aunt Alisa" as they came in to the kitchen. I managed to stay in bed for a little longer, but finally I got up to their calls. We played "I Spy" and "20 Questions". These two games seem to be their favorite games. Today is Fast Sunday here, so I stayed out of the kitchen so as not to be tempted.

We pulled the mattress in front of the TV and the boys and I watched a DVD. Well, I should say they watched and I dozed off. Chelsea and Todd's ward meets at 1:00 pm. After everyone was ready we took some pictures of the kids and I attempted a picture of their family. Unfortunately, their is a circle glare on all of the pictures I took on the nice camera. I think the sun was reflecting on that spot because none of the pictures I took inside had the glare. Darn. There were some really cute pictures in that group! I did have my small camera and so I was able to get a couple of nice ones.

I went to Primary with Chelsea for the 2nd hour of church so I could see her in action (she is the PR chorister). They are learning "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet". The younger group was doing really well. During the 3rd hour I attended Relief Society. It was interesting to be a participant and see how other wards do things.

After Church we had dinner together. Todd did some BBQ chicken and steak and Chelsea made some sour cream potatoes and veggies. I was the french bread specialist. It was very good after a day of fasting.

Tonight we watched the Dodgers play the Phillies. We are so happy to see them doing well! Go Dodgers! We really enjoyed that win! Now, they need to keep the winning streak going! While we watched the game I showed TJ & Jared how to make homemade Oreo cookies. TJ and Jared each cracked an egg in to the bowl and they helped put them together too. They decided they were just about as good as 'real' ones. Chelsea decided that some mint frosting would make for some good ones!

A day of football

Last night I flew from Burbank to Sacramento. Aunt Marilyn & Uncle Chris met me at the airport. They brought me one of their cars to use for the weekend. We had a good visit for 20 minutes in the parking lot before I headed to Yuba City. I arrived at Todd & Chelsea's house about 10:30 pm. They had all gone to bed and I found my bed ready and waiting for me!

This morning we were up early for TJ's game. He needed to be at the weigh in for football at 7:45 am. The game was held at Sutter Union High School - about a 20 minute drive from the house. Yes, that is the AM! It was an early day! Needless to say I was putting my makeup on in the car once we got to the field. It was FREEZING this morning. I was really quite surprised how cold I was. I had a sweater and a jacket on and I was still cold. Fortunately, it did warm up some, but I never did take off my sweater.


TJ plays on the mighty mites league. They play four 10-minutes quarters. The team is on offense for two quarters and defense for two quarters. If they score it is one point - although they never really kept score. Todd had me bring the nice camera and so I was able to get some great pictures (not quite Corrine-quality, but still good). I even was able to catch TJ's TOUCHDOWN in sports mode. TJ played a great game. He was involved in almost every play and was on both sides of the ball. Todd had him all taped up (including the shoes) just like Todd and my other brothers did when they played football. I must admit, when I was taking pictures it was much easier to tell where he was because of the yellow-taped socks.



After the game was over we stayed for the first half of the next game. A family in their ward has five boys. Basically they camp out at the high school the whole day. We watched one of their sons play. This was the league TJ will be playing in next year and it was amazing to see how much more advanced they are. After we left the field they took me to see their new home. They found a bigger home with a GREAT yard for the same amount of money each month. It is in the process of being painted, new carpet, etc. We walked around the yard and peeked in the window. I took some pictures so watch Todd & Chelsea's blog to see them. The yard is absolutely wonderful. It is on a cul-de-sac and they are the middle house so it has a pie shaped yard. The boys will love it!

Chelsea and I ran to the store and then we had lunch. We had some of the Saturday football games going on but the boys really wanted to play games. Jared and I played a "Go Diego" Memory game and we played Connect Four as well. All three of us played a Scooby Doo game -- the boys taught me how to play it. We had a great time. At 4:00 we headed back over to the school to watch another of their friend's sons play his game. He is on the oldest team. They played great and won the game 38-0. It was still cold and I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate while watching the game.

After the game we ran to Wal-Mart for some computer discs so I can leave the pictures here and then to dinner at Costa Vida. It was very yummy! We came home and cuddled while watching a movie. However, we all ended up sleeping instead of watching the movie and so we just turned it off and are calling it a night! It has been a great day. Oh, thanks Kate for sending us BYU updates. Thankfully they pulled it off even though it sounds like they didn't play very well at all.

A 40th Celebration/FHE

On Friday, a friend Rachel, had her 40th birthday. As with most people who hit this wonderful milestone, she was not really too excited about it. Corrine told her we needed to celebrate! We decided to combine FHE with her birthday celebration. A few of us got together at JJ Brewsky's for dinner. We chose this place because they were advertising Oktoberfest. Corrine loved celebrating this in Germany so I thought it would be fun. Unfortunately their menu left a little to be desired (unless we wanted to drink) when it came to the Oktoberfest items. However, we did find something yummy to eat. Rachel enjoyed herself. Our server found out it was her birthday and so she brought dessert out with a candle. Rachel wasn't too thrilled about having her picture taken, however, we convinced her to take ene with the balloons Corrine gave her. Happy Birthday Rachel! May this be your best year yet!

Griffith Observatory

Corrine has been wanting to go to the Griffith Observatory for some time. She finally decided to put it on the calendar. She sent out an e-mail and invited a bunch of people. It ended up being Natasha, Tracilee, Corrine & I. In the 20 years I have lived here I have never been. It was a great experience. Unfortunately the telescope was closed because it was a cloudy evening and the cloud cover wouldn't allow us to see anything. We watched a movie about the history of the stars, etc. It was in an IMAX theatre and was great. The chairs allowed you to lay back as we watched. They did a nice job. There was a neat area where you could see information about each of the planets. (I think it is ridiculous they don't include Pluto with the planets. However, Pluto was at this display! :)) In each area you could weigh yourself on the planet. I don't really enjoy weighing myself on this planet, but I couldn't resist this and so I did. I think I would enjoy living on Mercury or Pluto for weight issues. :)

After the observatory we went to dinner at BJ's. I had the wonderful BBQ chicken salad. It is SO yummy! Thanks to the recommendation of Tracilee we all split one of the desserts they are famous for - BJ’S FAMOUS PIZOOKIE® Their menu says "You’re never too old to enjoy our freshly baked, hot out of the oven, rich and delicious cookie topped with two scoops of vanilla bean ice cream and served in its own deep dish. Your choice of chocolate chunk, white chocolate macadamia nut, peanut butter or oatmeal raisin walnut."