pumpkin cookies

Jake had a scout meeting on Sunday night so Abbi and I made pumpkin cookies.  We got the recipe just right:  pumpkin, spice cake mix, and a million chocolate chips.  I'm pretty sure our common love of chocolate will make this "be a family" thing an ace in the hole.  We LOVE chocolate.  While Jake was away we ate at least a dozen cookies.  Noah prefers to eat his hands-free.  The video is hilarious.  Especially because the radio was playing "Because I Have Been Given Much" and he kept asking for more cookies. 

Thanks for the help, E. Noorda

We sure appreciated the extra pair of hands, Emily.  We also appreciate your dedication to high quality painting.  And, the fan and Febreeze in the bathroom.

50 Days in Counting

Day 50 Project:  We're starting to paint Abbi's room and the upstairs hall.  We'll paint Noah's room and the kid's bathroom in May.  That leaves us with only our bedroom, bathroom, and the half bath downstairs I destroyed with paint last year.  If you have a painting bone in your body....you are welcome to join us  :)  I'd love to take advantage of you.  That's right.  Love.

In Memorial

Last week, Jake got me a surprise.  His hint was that the gift could be named "Homer."  For anyone who is familiar with the Simpsons, you would know right away the gift is really meant for the giver in some way.  It's a disguised purchase.  He bought me my own set of golf clubs.  Jake's a foot taller than me so I'm pretty sure this isn't a Homer gift.  How can he use clubs that are so short?  Honestly, I was not sure the inevitable golfing was going to live up to whatever Jake imagined when he thought up this idea.  But who can resist the idea of St. George in March?  I agreed to go after negotiating a trip to the outlet shops.  Away we went....

It wasn't too bad.  In fact, I didn't bomb.  I was nervous, especially because we had to golf with a stranger.  Luckily, he was friendly.  And he didn't make fun of me.  And sometimes he gave me tips.  There was a one hole that made me really mad.  Apparently, a lot of golf courses have holes with a dog-leg.  I hate them.  It's impossible to not swear 3,000 times about it.

IMPORTANT PART OF THE GOLFING STORY:  The sixth hole was my last one.  It was the shortest shot and easiest of all the holes.  It was a short distance but it crossed the water.  In the water there were 3 ducks.  Jake said my only job was to not hit the duck.

I whaled the duck.  He didn't even see it coming.  The ball hit him right in the middle of his back.  Poor little guy was mad.  Probably sad too.  And a little injured.  I decided that the chances of hitting the duck were as good as getting a hole in one.  So.... I called the game.  That was my last swing of the day. 

Jake and the stranger finished the last 3 holes while I sat (sometimes drove) the cart and read Pride and Prejudice from my Kindle.

I'm positive that the Duck Incident doesn't bode well with my history of animals.  But it was pretty much the funniest thing that ever happened to me on a golf course.

who are you?

http://beautystrengthwisdom.blogspot.com/

The blogger stats are pretty interesting for me to review once in a while.  I like to see that people in the Czech Republic, Columbia, the Netherlands, Russia, Japan, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Belgium, Puerto Rico have happened upon my blog.  I wonder who they are or how they found it.  I'd really like to be blog friends with all of them.

The one that mostly surprises me is the 35 times this blog has been the referring site to my blog.  It's private.  I have no idea who/what this is.  You're welcome to keep reading, but I am so curious.  Will you tell me who you are?

For the sake of record keeping

Anne and I periodically talk on the phone.  I talk on the phone with a lot of people: Wendy, my mom, my dad, Jimmy, Amber, Jeremy, your mom, Jake, people from work, people from church, etc.  There are a lot of people I don't talk to on the phone a lot too.  But they text me.  One person, who we will call Anne, says I should call her pretty much all the time.  For the sake of transparency, I would like to list my most recently received calls and the date of the call. 

Dad - March 4, 7:29 a.m. on my day off
Patty - March 3
Trina - March 3
Wrong number - March 3
Starla - March 1
Anne - February 28, 5:18 p.m. returning the call she missed a few minutes before
Annalee - February 27
Wendy - February 27
Cris - February 26
Jimmy - February 26 and 25
Alleson - February 24
Dad - February 24
Jake - February 23
Mom - February 22

For clarification, here are my outgoing calls to Anne in the last month:
March 3
March 2 - 2 times
February 28
February 24
February 23
February 22
February 21
February 20
February 17
February 15
February 12
February 10 - 4 times
February 9
February 8
February 7 - 2 times
February 4 - 3 times
February 3 - 2 times
February 2
February 1 - 2 times

Incoming calls from Anne:
February 28
February 15
February 10 - 2 times
February 9 - 2 times
February 5
February 4 - 2 times

I'll keep up the good work.  You're next Wendy.

please let me explain

At the risk of being offensive, I decided the time has come to state my opinions and explain my theories related to the Facebook (FB).  My behavior on the website (est. 2005) has been a little like a roller coaster ride. 

I use it.
In my altered view of being personal, I post pictures, sometimes a status, periodically a link to my blog, and I push "like" on a lot of my "friends" posts.

I don't use it.
Several times I have gone AWOL on FB.  I recognize that any amount of time spent browsing that website could most certainly be used a more productive, even happier way.  I have purposely stayed away from FB for days, for weeks, even more than a month once.

I like it.
I like FB for a lot of reasons. I like to see pictures that my family posts and I like to read funny one-liners people use as their status/captions/comments. We all know that I appreciate dry one-liners more than I appreciate a good meal.

I hate it.
I hate it because of the wildly inappropriate things people post anywhere on FB.  I especially hate it when people post things I don't like on my wall or as comments on my pictures. 

Let me loosely define "wildly inappropriate": any picture revealing parts of the body I wouldn't see at church (whether or not you just birthed a 16 pound baby), comments that twist other people's posts into something nasty (not funny, it ruins the whole post), swear words in general, personal or emergency type status (the worst way to learn about a death or a family emergency is on FB), picking a fight with one or more people by posting a comment on a wall other than your own, posting comments anywhere that you are a victim (which a licensed medical professional could track back through your own behavior) and blaming your circumstances on others, condolences,..... I'm leaving the list open because you know you've judged posts on FB as "wildly inappropriate."

I post pictures.
I have a lot of pictures on FB.  It's fun to post them and, occasionally, I want to share them with more than the 3 people reading my blog.

I don't post pictures.
I go through phases where I can literally see the walls I have built around myself.  FB + walls = unrest.  Those are the times I don't post anything.  It's probably the same theory on this blog.  I think things like:  no one cares to see this, no one cares to read this, it's no one's business that I think this, someone will judge me for this.  Wow.  I never really listed those reasons before, makes me sounds unwell. 

I stalk people.
It's true.  I'm going to vote that it's not stalking if you go through the pages of the people who have accepted you as their FB friend.  But any time I spend looking up people and reading pages of non-friends, I would dare say is FB stalking.  There were about 6 weeks where Jake was a serious victim of FB stalking even though on week 2 his page privacy changed and I could only see the same basic information.  I don't know why I kept checking for the next 4 weeks.

I vow I will never stalk again. 
During the aforementioned "6 weeks" I decided not to look at Jake's page anymore.  I'm pretty sure I never succeeded.  But I will mention I have been successful in the past.  I haven't looked up and have no desire to see the pages of previous "interests/relationships," old friends/acquaintances, and I'm really considering a person connected by blood.  It never makes me happy or feel better to see their pages.

I accept friends. 
At one time I had over 300 FB friends.  I can't deny I do enjoy FB interactions with my family and my very close friends. 

I delete friends. 
I currently have 128 FB friends, with 3 requests pending.  Many times I have thought about deleting my whole account.  That's when the whole FB + walls = unrest equation weighs heavily on my mind.  Also factor in that I go through the "don't use it" time because I know my time can be better spent elsewhere.  I would really love to interact with the FB crowd in person more than on FB.  So all of this comes down to, I delete people.  Selfishly, I do it so I can feel better about justifying the time I spend on FB.  I don't want to use it as a time waster but as a updater on the people I currently spend time with in person.  I loved 5th grade.  I loved the singles' ward.  I loved my past co-workers.  It's not personal when I don't accept them as friends on FB.  I've been deleted from a few pages myself.  It's never hurt my feelings.  In fact, it makes me laugh because I know just how that person feels.

I hate Farmville.
I seriously judged people who play any game, especially this game, on FB.  Ridiculous.

I play Farmville. 
Anne set up Farmville on my FB to grow her farm somehow.  She used it until I took it over.  I got hooked.  And until I got to a level that made it pretty difficult to continue to the next level, I played this game with strategery.

I know I have not been totally faithful to these standards.  I have made concessions and exceptions to my FB rules.  That's okay.  This is the first time I've ever seen them written out either.

I dare you to send your comments (statement of opinion, explanation, animadversion, annotation, backtalk, buzz, comeback, commentatry, crack, criticism, dictum, discussion, editorial, elucidation, exposition, footnote, gloss, hearsay, illustration, input, judgment, mention, mouthful, note, obiter, observation, opinion, remark, report, review, two-cents' worth, wisecrack) without the use of a computer or cell phone. 

Address them to: 

Paperless

Joey Hansen

1801 West 5050 South

Roy, Utah 84067