The time has come. . .

Tomorrow we go on the trek - YIKES! We're pretty excited, actually. Anyway, we'll post pictures when we get back, wish us luck!

Weekly Quote 5/28/07

"When a girl is under 21, she's protected by law. When she's over 65, she's protected by nature. Anywhere in between, she's fair game. Look out." That was Cary Grant in Operation Petticoat. I just thought it was such a weird thing to say. Anyway, sorry for the difficulty level. New quote up, and it's an Anderson special.

Things that give me a chuckle

A couple of awesome things.

1) I found this on Tyler Squire's blog. It makes me sick to think of that much meat. But you know, looking at the pictures, I can't help but think of Mario eating that hamburger in Giant Land. And that has comedic value.

2) www.creedthoughts.gov.www\creedthoughts You have to watch The Office for this to be funny (more specifically the finale for season 3, "The Job"), but trust me, The Office is worth your time. And a little trivia: Creed really was in a band in the 60's. Grass Roots. Check it out, he's the doof in the back playing the guitar.

I know I'm laughing, how about you?

Hello. My Name Is _______

I just did something that I swore I would never do. I had to call someone in the ward, so I dialed the number, the phone rang, she answered, and I said, "Hi, this is Sister Blockburger from the ward." It was out before I'd even thought about it! Sister Blockburger?! I was saying just the other day that I don't think I could ever go by Sister Blockburger because, a) it's too formal, and I'm a T-shirt and jeans kind of girl, and b) who wants to be solely identified by the name Blockburger? Before Clark jumps down my throat, I really have grown into my last name, and I like that it makes me unique (there certainly aren't any other Blockburgers in the ward), but I much prefer to be known as Shannon Blockburger. It adds at least a little bit of normalcy to the name. Anyway, I'm just in shock over here that those words came out of my mouth without even thinking. Is this a sign of maturity?

What a Good Day!

I've gotta say, the Visiting Teaching program is inspired. Here I was, having a "woe is me" day, feeling sorry for myself, thinking, "Oh, I'll just put on a happy face for when my visiting teachers come over." But my goodness, they came over and just lightened my mood, they really brought the spirit into my home. I didn't even say much, Sister Hill was talking about some experiences she has had recently and how grateful she is for the gospel, for her health, all sorts of things, and it just really hit me how truly blessed I am. Sure, I don't have everything I want, but that is what life is all about, aspiring for something better. I have this one problem that seems to take over my entire life, I think about it all the time, it consumes me and not in a good way. The kicker? I can't do a dang thing about it. So here I am, stewing about it all the time, feeling sorry for myself, when I could be doing so much good in the world. Sitting around and worrying won't do anything. And I'm always saying how I have time, why not use it for something wonderful? I've been thinking a lot lately that I should be doing more family history stuff, even if it's just learning the stories, finding out where I came from. I always get excited to start, and then I get discouraged because I don't know what to do, but I just have to dive in, do the digging, ask questions, figure it out. I'm just feeling highly motivated right now, motivated, inspired, and edified. Incredible, here this was shaping up to be a bad day, and just having 2 ladies that I don't know very well come to my house for 45 minutes makes it one of the best days I've had in a long time. I tell you what, Heavenly Father absolutely knew what he was doing when he set up visiting teaching, and when he gave me the visiting teachers I have now.

Swimming

We just can't get enough of Zion National Park! We were there again this weekend with the Blockburgers, and a great time was had by all. It was especially nice to come back from a long, hot morning of hiking and take a dip in their hotel pool - it felt so good. I've never been much of a swimmer, but with all the heat that we get down here, all I can think of is how nice it would feel to go swimming.

Interesting observation. I went to the pool with Jessica on Friday night, and then we went again on Saturday afternoon. And both Friday night and Saturday night, as I was going to bed, I felt like I was sleeping at a hotel. I thought that was weird, that apparently just swimming in a pool makes me feel like I'm at a hotel. I'm like a Pavlov dog - Swimming = Hotels. I can't remember the last time I went swimming somewhere other than a hotel. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting social experiment of sorts.

All in all, it was great to see the Blockburgers, we miss them down here in the George.

Weekly Quote 5/21/07

"Inconceivable!" Gotta love the Princess Bride. New quote up - Clarky will know it because we just watched it.

Secret Assistant to the Regional Manager

I don't know how many of you watch The Office, but if you don't, you should. It's absolutely hilarious. Last night was the season finale, and it was all one could hope for: a brave Pam, Dwight ruling the office, Michael being Michael, and Jan going crazy. It was great. I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone who still hasn't viewed it, but it is a good one. www.fanpop.com has all the episodes on it, if you so care to view.

It's kind of sad that I've become so addicted to TV. It starts with one show, and then another, then another, until I'm full on addicted to at least one thing every night. Nate recently got me hooked on Heroes, but the season finale is next week. I always watch American Idol (even though I can't believe that Melinda got kicked off, she was the best singer there), but that ends next week. The Office ended last night. Amazing Race ended a couple weeks ago. So I'm free for the summer! Hooray! The one problem? I don't plan on leaving the house much this summer, seeing as I'll melt if I do. I guess Clark and I will have to get really good at playing Scrabble.

"I'm seventeen!"

And Clark always thought he married an older woman.

Last night I tagged along with the youth in our ward to take a tour of the Jacob Hamblin Home. I may have seen the home before, but it was so long ago that I don't remember. Since Clark is now in the YM Presidency, along with our friend Brandon, and Danielle is in YW, I figured it wouldn't be such a big deal if I came along. And it wasn't, it was a good time. I was really glad to take the little tour, learn a little bit more about Jacob Hamblin himself, and just feel a little bit more connected with St George.

After the tour was over, we were chatting with the guide about how cotton came down here and thus gave the name Dixie to everything around, such as the college and the high school, etc. That nice old man looked at me and asked if I went to Dixie. This is a common mistake. In fact, just earlier in the day someone had asked me if I was in college, which I guess I should take as a compliment. Normally I just correct people, tell them I actually graduated from BYU 4 years ago, and I almost always get a, "Wow, you don't look that old." So I'm used to it. Back to the story at hand. I think he might have sensed that he was wrong in his assumption, so he then asked, "Are you out of high school?" Um, whoa, please tell me I look older than 18. And let's think about the fact that I am standing there, holding hands with Clark, who has a beard. I really hope it doesn't look like a YM leader is going out with one of the YW. I guess the other alternative is that we are both youth, and Clark is a rebel 18-year-old with a beard. I don't know. I was just taken aback by his comment. He apologized, of course, when I told him how old I really am, and I don't have any harsh feelings. But man alive, high school? I haven't gotten a comment like that in 3 or 4 years.

Bonus points if you can name the movie the title of this post comes from.

Grafton, UT

This weekend, we had the Adamses come visit. Good times! We went to Zion, saw lots of stuff there, and then headed over to Grafton, UT, in search of a grave. Grafton is a ghost town somewhat close to Rockville, and I found out just a few weeks ago that one of my ancestors is buried there. And so we went. And we found it!

Byram Lee Bybee was my great-great-great-grandfather. Cool, huh?


It was actually really cool to see the graveyard, there are a lot of old headstones, some of them you can't read at all. And some of the mounds don't even have a headstone, it's kind of sad. I was really grateful that someone had taken the time to make up a nice, new headstone for good old Byram.
And this is an old house in "town." They've got a restoration project going, they want to restore the town. I think that's great and all, but I just don't know how much sense it makes to rebuild this tiny town. But I do think it's important to remember our heritage, so I could get behind a compilation of Grafton's history. Anyway, it was a great experience. And a fun weekend overall.

Weekly Quote 5/14/07

"He can't sing? Then why has he got such a big band?"
"To drown him out!"

That was from Return to Me. Pretty obscure quote, I know. New quote up!

New Calling

All my whining and complaining to God finally worked - I have a calling! I am the new Relief Soceity Music Director. What an excellent calling! I definitely feel like I'm contributing to our ward, but it's not very time consuming, and I have no meetings to attend. And I love music! I get to pick the hymns every week! The pianist will have plenty of notice so she can practice! And I get to do the music appreciation thing, that's the one challenge, but it's a good challenge, who doesn't want to learn more about the hymns? So there you go, prayer works.

Steve Nash in the Dark

I'm a posting fiend today. So, I just saw a picture of Steve Nash's Nasty Gash, and all I could think was he looks like this guy.

New! Fast Franks!

Because it's just too much work to put the dog in the bun. . .

Weekly quote 5/7/07

Well, Al got last week's quote pretty quick. "Madame Medusa's Pawnshop Boutique," was indeed from The Rescuers. New quote up, and I'll admit, this is a tougher one.

Anniversary

As noted earlier, our anniversary was on Saturday, and we had quite a bit going on. To start our day, we had some Ma and Pa Pioneer Trek training. Saturday was the day we saw a chicken killed, skinned, gutted, and cut up. Not the most romantic thing. In fact, it was pretty gross. The night before I was asking Clark if he thought it would be messy, and he said, "No. I don't think they'll actually kill a chicken. I mean, we'll be in a park, you can't kill a chicken in a park." Oh, but you can. And they did. Ripped it's head right off. It was hard for me to watch as well, but I knew one of us had to keep our eyes open. Turns out our kids will be in charge of killing the chickens, we don't have to do it, but we do have to supervise, talk them through it, watch. The stake leaders had mentioned before that the kids would be in charge of pushing the handcarts as well, we wouldn't have to touch them, but I guess they haven't had as many kids sign up to come as they had thought, so they said some Ma's and Pa's would have to help out with that. I'm really quite tempted to send them an email saying that we'd be happy to push the cart, no problem, as long as they give us a kid who can kill a chicken. Because neither one of us can do it. Just can't. I'm fairly certain of that. Unless they want people passing out.

After that traumatic experience, we went to Daylight Donuts and got a dozen glazed for a dollar (a dollar!), because we'd both been wanting one for quite some time. And they were tasty. What a good promotion, on their part, because now I know where they are, and I'm pretty sure I'll go back.

A little later, my dear friend Amber came to visit. It was so good to see her and talk to her, it had been far too long. And we got some Yo-Cream. Excellent stuff, that is.

And to round the day out, we had a ward Cinco de Mayo Fiesta! It was a good time, there was tons of food, lots of people, we had fun. We also started a ward fast together, which was good. But it also meant that we couldn't really go out after the party (which is why we went out to dinner on Friday night). We were stuffed, anyway. So we came home, and watched TV. We actually watched movies, but they were movies on TV. It was fun. Oh, and Clark bought me Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So now I can learn all the Oompa Loompa dances! WOO! All in all a great anniversary. And I had Gene singing "Happy Anniversary" to the William Tell Overture in my head all day long.

Restaurant Review

Clark and I went out for our anniversary last night (today is going to be too busy) to a place called Benja Thai and Sushi. Neither of us had ever tried Thai food before, so we thought it would be an adventure. It was excellent. The decor was great, created a very soothing and yet formal atmosphere. Our waiter was great, he offered some menu suggestions for us, which we of course took, seeing as we had no idea what would be good. We got the Cashew Nuts dish, as well as the Pad Thai dish, and had it family style. And the food was good, great in fact. I was even bold and had at least one of each vegetable offered, including a whole pea pod, and I actually liked them (I know, incredible!). We didn't get anything spicy, although there was plenty of that on the menu, if that's what you're after. Overall, it was just a great experience. I would highly recommend this place to anyone who is in St George and wants a restaurant with good atmosphere, great food, and fabulous service.

"Oh, the wind is lashing lustily!"

It is rather blustery today. In fact, I don't think rather blustery quite cuts it. It's extremely windy. I've just been sitting in our study, working away, so I really haven't noticed it much. Until the wind started blowing the blinds around like crazy. Then I closed the windows. And just now I got up, went into our bedroom, and noticed that it's raining. Well, it's sprinkling. But the wind has cause all those little sprinkles to land on our bedroom window. It's one wet window. And I swear the tree outside of our apartment is going to break a few branches, this is quite the wind.

Wow, how sad that my blog has become a weather log? What would you call that, a Wlog? A Rlog? A Therlog? Oh, I know what you'd call it: Boring.

A Good Day

The weather has been getting downright hot here the last week or so, but today was much cooler with a lovely breeze. There is just something wonderful about a day when you can leave the windows open. It makes everything feel good.

That's all.

Casino Royale

I finally did it. I watched Casino Royale.

We had a coupon for a free movie rental, so off we went to Hollywood Video in search of some entertainment. We made the rounds, looking through all the new releases, and just couldn't decide what we wanted to see. Then I saw Casino Royale, and I said to myself, I want to see that, and I know Clark wants to see that, let's watch it!

Back when it first came out, I really did not want to see it. I've only really seen one other Bond movie (Die Another Day), and I didn't really love it. It's lots of action, lots of shooting people, lots of immorality, not really my cup of tea. But over the past few months, I've heard nothing but good reviews. Everyone loves it, it's the best Bond yet, such a cool movie, a "must-see." And I bought into it, hook, line, and sinker.

Let's just say I'm very glad we didn't actually pay for it. To me, it was exactly what you'd expect from a Bond movie: shooting people, things blowing up, and slutty girls. It just didn't draw me in. Granted, I haven't seen many Bond movies, but if this is the best they have to offer, I don't think I want to see any of them. Sorry to all you who loved it, I just didn't. Turns out I should've trusted my gut on this one, and steered clear of it.