Elder Stringfellow

My brother is now officially a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He reported to the Provo MTC today at 1:30 pm. This week has been rough for me. My brother and I are really close and so to have him gone will be tough. But, I know that he is doing what he's supposed to be right now in his life and that he will come back a better man then he left.

I thought this was going to be a little easier for me, just because I've done it before with Cody. But I was wrong. Plus, Cody was a different situation, if you know what I mean. Who knew having a boyfriend and a brother out on their mission at the same time would be so difficult? Good thing Cody's home in a year... that'll make it easier.

My mom's friend, Elizabeth, gave us a quote block that says this:

Missionary: (noun)
One who leaves their family for a short time so that others may be with their families for eternity.

I love that! It really put the time factor in perspective for me, for both Cody and Parker. 2 years is seriously nothing compared to the length of eternity. This is only a short time that both are gone from my life, and I will have more time with them then not.

I love my brother. I am grateful to have him in my life. And I'm grateful to have him be a messanger and representative of the Lord. He will be a great missionary. The people of Brisbane Australia will be lucky to have him.

Happy Kangaroo, Elder Stringfellow!

I caught this picture at the perfect time! He was tripping over his suitcase and I snapped the camera right when he made this face. :D

Scrapbooking

I love to scrapbook.
I need to scrapbook more.
Especially now that I have the time.
I have lots of pictures to scrapbook for Cody's mission album.
But I want more pictures of him to scrapbook. :D
Guess I'll have to wait to steal his pictures from him when he gets home.
I get to start on a mission album for Parker soon too :( Sad day. But happy day cause then I'll get to scrapbook more!

Frightmares 2010

Parker, Lindsey, and I went to Lagoon with our cousin Joel yesterday. It was so much fun! Joel couldn't come until 3 pm because of band practice, but we found lots of fun stuff to do until he got there. For example...

We've always wanted to take these pictures. But... we just never did. Good thing we remembered to take extra money yesterday to do them because they were fun. We got a really good deal on them too. The goofy picture is really goofy though. The lady gave us literally 10 seconds to decide what we were going to do. I'm not good with posing on the spot like that. Parker and Lindsey did really good! I tried to look like I was worried that Parker was gonna shoot Lindsey in the head. Didn't work haha! Now I figured out what I should have done. I figured out that I should have either been trying to grab the money that's in Parker's other hand since he wasn't looking... or putting my hand over my mouth... that would have made me look more worried. Oh well. What's done is done. It's a good picture anyway. Lindsey and I also though it was weird that they didn't give us shoes to wear. It looks funny when saloon girls don't wear their shoes hehe! Oh well... it was still a blast.

We waited to do most of the bigger rides until Joel got there. In the meantime we did like the Tilt-A-Whirl, Samurai, and Merry-Go-Round, just because those were good rides to do where you didn't need an even group. Then when Joel got there, we did Collassus (I'm not so sure that's how you spell it but oh well) and Wicked, etc. Then we did the haunted houses when it got dark.

This is the only picture that Joel would let me take of his face. What a punk :P

Now I need a few minutes to vent. Sorry. Sacrament meeting in church today went pretty good. Until Bishop stood up. Here's a pre-cursor to this story. Apparently my ward had a service project sleepover from Friday until Saturday. I didn't go because I thought it was a terribly inappropriate activity, well the sleepover part, plus we had already planned Lagoon for that Saturday. Anyways, I guess only half of the ward that told Bishop they were planning on being there showed up, which is fine. College life gets crazy. Things come up for classes that are important, or maybe something happens in a family that can't be missed. Sometimes college students get super busy and just forget. It happens. But my Bishop can't see that, because during Sacrament meeting, he got up and told the ward that this activity wasn't for the service. The reason they had it was so that people could interact and get to know each other. Don't you think that it should be about both? But don't you think that it could be done WITHOUT giving the kids an opportunity to be inappropriate? (Not that it happened or that it would, but still you're giving them a good chance to let it happen.) Then he goes on to tell the ward that he can only trust about 40% of the ward and that he doesn't trust the other 60% and that he's very dissappointed. WHAT?! Say that again, Bishop? Seriously? As a man in your position... you SHOULD NEVER tell a group of young adults that you don't trust them just because they missed an activity. That's stupid! You shouldn't say it to anyone at all! That really really upset me. Not because I am a member of the ward and now believes that my bishop doesn't trust me (I didn't answer him back so he didn't know if I was coming or if I wasn't...) but because it's just an uncalled for and rude comment. I don't understand. I came hom WAY upset and told my Mom about it. She told me to consider the source... which I have. Yes he's weird most of the time and does weird stuff but he is a man called of God. He shouldn't be saying that, or planning those types of activities for a college ward.

Alright, I'm done venting now. Sorry. I just don't understand people. I know I am in this ward for a reason, same as my last ward. I'm in this ward to see how not to act in leadership positions, to learn how to treat people, and to help my testimony grow, which is really hard. I'll get in a good ward someday. I just have to be patient.

Wisdom Teeth and The Lion King

Ok so... this post is super late for when I told you I was going to put it up. But here it is...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnQgwJpuJWc



Sorry I had to put the link up, it wouldn't let me embed the whole movie. It's sooo funny! I peed my pants about 30 times! :D


I went and saw The Lion King on broadway at Capitol Theater with my family, Deb, Linds, Claude, Nash and Dalene on Sunday. It was ssssooooo amazing! Oh my gosh! I loved it! Here are some stills from the internet since I couldn't take pictures there...

Timon and Pumba

Simba and Nala

Opening scene

Rafiki

So much fun! And on Saturday, Parker and Lindsey and I went to Lagoon with Nick! It was such a blast! I had such a great weekend!

27 Years

Today is my parent's 27th anniversary! I am so grateful for my parents and for all the good decisions they have made and for all the hard work that they do for me and my brother, sister, brother-in-law, and my nephews. They have been such great examples, and they have taught us so well and I am very grateful to have been in their lives. I haven't always made things easy for them, but I am so glad that they have stuck by me and have been there for me, even when I didn't want them to be. I love them so so so so much!

Engagement Photo

On their wedding day, 27 years ago. ( Too bad I couldn't find a good picture of both of them with my Dad in his black cowboy hat... BAHAHAHAHA! This'll do. :D)

Today... still in love.

I have another thing that I have been thinking about lately... This picture:

This picture was taken around the end of December or beginning of January, right before Cody left. What is he wearing? If you can't tell... it's my headband that I was wearing that night. We were playing around and being goofy and he had pulled it off my head and was playing with it. Then I took it from him and put it on his head. He let me take this picture. No complaints or objections. He just sat there and smiled while I put it on his head.

As I look back on this night, I think... "What an idiot! I must have been super retarded to put that on his head!" But the more I think about it and think about how he never complained or told me to take it off, I realized how much he must love me to sit there and let me be retarded :P and let me put it on his head. What a patient guy. Sometimes I do wacky stuff like that, just because it is my personality. And that doesn't bug Cody one bit. He loves me for who I am and for how I act... even though sometimes it's crazy. And he loves me enough to let me do these kind of stupid things to him...

After I took this picture, he did this:



He put the headband down on his eyes like that and then told me to take a picture. :D

I love him so so much! What a guy to put up with me... sometimes I wonder what he even sees in me haha! But I love that I love him and I love that he loves me. I can't wait for the day that he comes home and that I can give him a huge huge hug and tell him about everything! I can't wait for the day when I can see him smile again and hear him talk and hear him laugh. I just can't wait to see him again.

I have a good post coming tomorrow! I'm warning though, you may want to be have an extra pair of pants on hand, or be close to a bathroom.... you'll have to wait and see why. :P

State Fair Pics - All 2 of them

Ok so here are the 2 most random... well the pig one at least... Utah State Fair pics I think anyone will ever see...maybe. :P I took the pig one because it was so funny that the one pig's butt was in the food tray and that his hooves or whatever they are are pretty much going up the other pig's butt. HAHA! And they were sound asleep! Mom couldn't stop laughing... hilarious!


You're probably thinking, "Wait! This isn't a state fair picture!? It's a Lagoon picture!" Yes... the chainsaw guy is from Lagoon, but they were advertising Frightmares at the state fair and so they had two chainsaw guys. This one is sitting where Dad was sitting. He wanted Dad to stand up, and so we all thought that he was gonna do something to Dad, but then he nudges his way inbetween Mom and I and started hitting on Mom! SOO funny! It made me think of the time we went to Universal Studios a few years ago and Beetlejuice was hitting on Mom, but Mom was grossed out then and she wasn't this time, just because she hates Beetlejuice and thought that these guys were hilarious! Anyways, I wanted a picture and so Dad took the pic for us. Look at the random kid in the background BAHAHAHAHA! FUNNY!

P.S. Don't mind the flubbery stomach of mine :P I lost 5 pounds this last month and this month I'm gonna lose 5 more!

Lots of Updates!

First on updates...
Lindsey, Parker, Holly and I went to the Warped Tour at the fairgrounds! OH MY GOSH! Sooo much fun! But I'm stealing Lindsey's words on this one... I've had enough smokers, F-words and condoms to last me a life time now. haha! But it was a blast! The best show was by Hey Monday! And I found two new favorite bands... The Rocket Summer and The Cab. Loved it!

Hot Mike from Hey Monday (his name is really just Mike but I call him Hot Mike... haha!)

Hey Monday

(Alex, Jersey... who was barefoot the whole time, Cassadee Pope and Hot Mike)

The Rocket Summer

Update #2 -

Parker got his mission call on August 4th! Oh my goodness... you'll never guess where he's going....

AUSTRAILIA BRISBANE MISSION

:D

He reports to the Provo MTC on December 15, 2010. So he'll be gone before Christmas but at least he'll still be here for Thanksgiving and be back before Christmas in two years.

Calling Whitney and Chris with the proud Momma standing by :D

Update #3 -

2 Saturday's ago... Parker, Dad and I went off roading with my brother in law, Chris, his two brothers Mike and Nick, and Clint from Dad and Chris' work. It was so much fun! We went up American Fork Canyon on a trail called Mary Ellen Gulch. SOOO pretty! The Lord sure knew what he was doing when he made that place. Everything had a place. It looked like it had been landscaped. It was perfect! There was some old mining stuff up there that was sooo cool too!

Nick touching stuff in the old house up at the top of the mines in Mary Ellen Gulch. Ugh. What a brave kid haha!

Just one of the pretty moutainside pictures :D

Dad, Parker and Mike at a mine shaft opening.

I had a blast this past week! I love all my friends and family who keep me on top of things and continue to make me love life! Love ya'll!

Mission Call Guessing Game

Parker is supposed to be getting his mission call this week. We are playing a game. This is how you play.
We are having everyone guess where he is going.
Here are some of the guesses so far...

Grandma Kendall - Croatia
Dalene - Ukraine
Dawnell - Spain
Deborah - Germany or Italy
Whitney - Canada
Nash - Jamaica or Colorado (she said Uruguay at first in honor of Cody haha but then she changed it to Colorado because that's what her Dad guessed :D)
Me - Argentina (I said just South America but Lindsey told me that was too broad so I had to pick a specific country. I really would LOVE for him to go to Uruguay and be companions with Cody haha!)
Lindsey - Peru
Tyson - Russia
Jace - Philippines or Boston
Chris - Switzerland or Russia
Grandma Stringfellow - Austria
Mom - England or Netherlands
Dad - Texas
Claude - Tucson, Arizona Spanish Speaking (he was very specific! haha!)
Grandpa Kendall - South America
Jeff - Colorado
Heather Rittenhouse - Brazil
Garrett Carlile - Carlsbad, CA (cause that's where he went)
Debbie Hadden - Des Moines, IA (cause that's close to where she lives)

Anyways, if you guys have any guesses, leave a comment! Then when we find out I'll let everyone know!

Lindsey's Purse Party

Lindsey had a purse party on the 15th! (I realize this is a FEW days late but hey... at least I'm getting around to it.) :D Here are just some fun pictures that I took:

Nash looks like she's about to fall asleep...

Just ONE of the tables full of purses... there were many more on the floor, kitchen table and like one other table. They're so much fun to dig through!

HAHAHAHAHA! Oh Dad! Mom wondered if he ran out of feed... :D

Funny story! So Dalene and Nash drove Grandma's car with Grandma up to Lindsey's house for the party. Well, we past them on the freeway and Parker goes... "Oh! I wonder where they're going!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Not even thinking that they're going to the purse party too! Oh man! I will never let him live that one down. :D

I'm thinking about selling purses with this lady that does this! She asked if I was interested and I just might be... it'll be a good flexible job to have while going to hygiene when I start that.