meet the becks

as many of you may know, the twin cities of moorhead, minnesota and fargo, north dakota have been battling flooding from the red river for several days now. my brother and his family live up there and they have been chronicling on their blog their day to day activities as they prepare for flooding or emergency evacuation.
what started out for me as merely checking their blog to make sure that they are alright has turned into a daily ritual to find out what lengths they have had to go to insure that their family and their home is safe. it has been quite the inspiring experience for me. their daily posts have detailed their individual efforts and the contributions of their entire community to protecting their city. situations like this really remind me of how incredible humankind can be. difficult situations truly bind people together.
read it and find out what kind of amazing dedication steve and sarah have(i taught steve everything he knows about being awesome). i think they are such a great example of hard work and love and i am so grateful that they have been safe thus far in this trial.
meet the becks

vampyromania

stardate: march 21, 2009
mission: obtain twilight special edition dvd
accomplice: rochelle

first stop was border's. rochelle and i chilled took pictures and checked out new releases. 20 minutes before midnight, a borders employee announced for everyone to line up according to bracelet number. puzzled, we asked the nearest goth bookstore employee how we obtained said bracelet. apparently the last bracelet had been passed out at 10am that morning. upon hearing this crucial piece of information, we booked it out of there and i drove like a cullen to the nearest store.

lucky for us the nearest store selling twilight special edition dvds was my favorite place on earth(and yours too, admit it!) wal-mart!!! wal-mart at midnight on the weekend is the nearest thing to a lake of fire and brimstone that i can think of. sometimes i wonder if the prison parole bus just drops people off outside.

i took this picture under the guise that i want to show how long the line was. i was number 252. but really, this picture is to point out this creepy kid who was in line in front of us. has his skin ever seen light of day?

better yet was the people who stood in line behind us. this little clan had the filthiest mouths i had heard in a long time. every other word was effing this or effing that. the f-word makes my ears want to bleed. i was incredibly tempted to point out that their misuse of the f-word as an adjective, but from the sounds of it, i was also going to have to explain what an adjective is. there wasn't enough time left in the day for that lesson.

a successful purchase.

saturday night there was a small celebration at my house. deleted and extended scenes were viewed. blood was sampled from champagne flutes. our appetites were whet for new moon. here's to november 20, 2009!
here are the party people who also love to watch ridiculously awful yet compellingly fantastic movies. even more awesomely bad was watching it again on sunday night with the director's commentary. the only good thing about the twilight movie is that when you start at the bottom of the barrel of movie making, you are practically guaranteeing that new moon movie has to be exponentially better.

all this vampire talk got me thinking about some really important issues. if i ever am forced into driving a van(pray it never happens), i am definitely getting this as a vanity plate.

interstate love song

over the weekend thomas and i had our first opportunity to take an over night trip sans children in a LOOOONG time. it was heaven on earth to be away from those darling little monsters, if only for about 20 hours.

i picked big T up from the bright lights of downtown...

and we headed to the slightly less bright lights of winter quarters, nebraska. i always say that the best way to reconnect with your spouse is to take a road trip with them through the middle of nowhere. we laughed. big T drove. i napped. we ate at the ABSOLUTELY WORST sonic and mcdonalds on earth in the same 10 minutes. we sang along with the radio.(don't worry paula, you aren't the only one who wishes we could open the windows when i start singing.) we listened to the stone temple pilots greatest hits. we fell in love again listening to interstate love song. we discussed the band's merits and we pinky swore that we would never become addicted to heroin as it not only destoys bands but other important things like families.

our accomodations were at the mormon trail motel. i tried to find some photos online before i booked the room but i was unsuccessful. i don't think the proprietor had heard of this "internets phenomenon" yet. a vacancy at this palace? shocker.

behold, the only photos of the mormon trail motel available online. our luxurious accomodations:

we enjoyed all 6 channels on the TV and BOTH pillows on the bed. we felt like pioneers and we agreed that staying at this resort would become a family tradition.

the sign in the daylight: please note the fine establishment located next door.

the hotel exterior:

we enjoyed some time at the winter quarters temple.

the winter quarters temple is located next to a pioneer cemetary from when early latter-day saints were forced out of missouri into nebraska. over 600 saints died here from elements, illness and exposure in the winter of 1847.

i took this opportunity to bawl my face off. few things can put your life into perspective like visiting a place inhabited by people who gave their lives for the gospel of Jesus Christ and religious freedom. i promised myself i would be less of a whiner about my little problems.

mourn not for those who peaceful lay their wearied bodies down

who leave this frail and mortal clay to seek a fadeless crown

bowchickawowow

last night i washed el presidente's heavy winter coat. this morning i took it out of the dryer and it put on him before leaving for the gym. i dropped the kids off in childcare and thought nothing of it when reagan wanted to continue to wear his coat while he was playing with the other kids. this is not unusual for him; it is a great coat. i had an excellent workout and i was able to enjoy the fantastically vacuous new show on the style network called "running in heels". it is pure cat fights and other drivel in the fashion world so you know it is destined to become a new favorite. after running i finished up by stretching and chit chatting with my geriatric boyfriends tom and dick. afterwards, i checked the kids out of childcare and we drove home. as i was removing el presidente's coat, i noticed something small, black and satin stuck to the velcro square at his collar. upon further examination it was definitely something small, black and satin....and personal. it was an item of clothing that doesn't get worn very often around these parts. it was not a quilt square. it was not a hankerchief. not a scarf either. and it was not a bra. if you were one of the childcare workers, would you have pointed this very visible item out to me or would you have just rolled with it?