General Conference Peanut Butter Cups

Just in time for General Conference this weekend, here is one of my all-time favorite email forwards. It makes me laugh right out loud. Whoever wrote this initially certainly had an insight on how these men would talk about their Reese's experiences.

How General Authorities Eat Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Paul H. Dunn: "I remember back in WWII that I ate a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Back then, they were big enough to live on for a week. Being the only soldier to have survived the battle in my brigade, I really didn't know if I could eat it or not, but I remember my fallen buddy's words as he died in my arms: "Paul, if you just take one bite at a time you can tackle anything." So I took that giant cup and, breaking it with the bat Babe Ruth gave me after I struck him out with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the World Series, proceeded to wolf down the tiny morsels."

David B. Haight: "Imagine 70 years ago on a rough road between Idaho and Logan. There were no Circle K's, no 7- 11's. You had to bring your Peanut Butter Cups with you. Ruby and I split one for the first time in 1937."

Dallin H. Oaks: "The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup challenges us to consume. From the beginning there have been three steps in eating a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. First, remove the wrapper. This is best done quickly, by turning the cup over, grasping the outer fold and pulling away from the bottom. Second..."

Joseph B. Wirthlin: "When I was young I would sprint to the corner store, buy a Reese's and run my hand through my hair before taking it down in one bite. These days I don't sprint, and I have no hair, but the peanut butter cup remains."

Richard G. Scott: "If you have not eaten a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, I plead with you. Eat one now. Enjoy the chocolate, the peanut butter. Do not delay. If you have thought, "That's not for me," I plead with you to reconsider. Of all foods I treasure, this one was the first."

M. Russell Ballard: "The time has come when members of the church need to reach out to our friends and share a cup, a peanut butter cup. It is not enough to raise a chocolate bar, it must now have peanut butter."

Thomas S. Monson: "I remember I ate my first Reese's Peanut Butter Cup when I was a tender lad of eight. My mother came up to me, and with a loving twinkle in her eye, asked, 'Tommy, are you eating a Reese's?' I invariably smiled up to her, 'Yes, Yes, I am.' 'But Tommy, did you know that Sister Jensen next door hasn't eaten a Reese's Cup in years?' My young mind thought upon the plight of my neighbor. Tears were shed. Hearts were gladdened. A cup was shared."

Boyd K. Packer: "In all my years, I have always eaten my Reese's Peanut Butter Cups the same way - the established way we have been instructed to eat them. There is a far greater evil in this world - those who believe they can eat their cups in a way unconventional to the time-honored manner. We must be true and faithful and eat our Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the customary and recognized approach as it has been established."

Neal A. Maxwell: "I intentionally initiate the delicious design of deglutition of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup by nibbling a negligible nit of the culinary creamy cavalcade. It is exclusively through small entities that the great things are fabricated."

J. Golden Kimball: "Hell, Heber, I'll eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup any damned way I want!"

Happy getting-ready-for-conference week!

IT'S A BOY!

Our little new addition due in February is a boy! I remember when we found out Miriam was a girl I was kind of in shock thinking "Girl? How am I ever going to deal with a girl?!?" And now come to think of it, when I got my mission call, I remember thinking "Chile? I have to go to Chile?" At this point, there is a part of me that is still kind of in shock thinking "Boy? What are we going to do with a boy?!?" But there is another part of me thinking "HOORAY!" We're quite excited. He was so cute during the ultrasound! He kept putting his hands in his mouth and over his face. It looked like he couldn't decide between peek-a-boo and finger-licking. For this picture he chose finger-licking. All of his organs and appendages are where they are supposed to be and have all the parts and sizes that they are supposed to have. The ultrasound lady commented more than once on how big his feet are. We are good feet-makers: Miriam was born with noteworthy-long feet and toes, and still has them. She also has a deep and innate love for her feet and anything that goes on them (shoes, socks, and toenail polish). These things might be connected. Either way, this little boy is already ready to fill big shoes :). Take another gander at him. Isn't he absolutely perfect?!?

Free Ice Cream

On Thursday, you can be part of the WORLD'S LARGEST ICE CREAM SOCIAL! Doesn't it sound like fun? Go to your local Cold Stone Creamery from 3-5pm for a free 3oz ice cream creation. Go to their website for more details.

Phone Photos

About a year ago, I got a phone that takes pictures. A little late to the scene, but still pretty cool. I finally sent them all to my sister Erin who in turn sent them to my email (because she, unlike me, knows how to do that) so I now have them on my computer. Technology is truly amazing. Here are some of my favorites phone photos through the year.


This is when Miriam first started to walk. We had a dinner party at the church and afterwards, all the kids were racing back and forth across the gym. Miriam was amazed, and before whe took of to race after them, she just stood there and pointed. Oh, she wanted so badly to be a part of the crowd! She took off and ran and ran and ran. She was usually a full lap behind the others, but they were nice to her anyway. I personally like the way that she's looping her thumbs through her belt loop with her little Budah Belly hangin' over the buckle.











This is at the music portion of her library class at Sandy. She was so excited to shake the shakers and ran over to show me that she had two. This is moments before another kid hit her in the head with his bells. She reacted well, though, and just told him that she's tough and he can't hurt her. I was just glad it was the other kid that hit and not mine.














"Here Comes the Sun!" This is one of the first spring-feeling days. We went to the park and Miriam was so happy to not be cooped up inside or freezing outside. She just ran and ran, feeling the wind and the sun on her face.

















Proof that we finally found a teeter-totter! At the time, we balanced best with Brent on one side, and Miriam sitting behind me on the other. It took us a while to figure that out, and who knows how it would work out now.















Miriam has always loved tomatoes. This is one day when she didn't want anything I offered her for lunch (okay, so that happens a lot). Then we got the cherry tomatoes out and it was EXACTLY what she wanted. Oh what a happy girl! Please note the pictures of all the Levanger Cousins on the board behind her.














This summer, we went to quite a few outdoor potluck gatherings. Miriam was fascinated by the idea of just pulling whatever food off the table she wanted. Potato chips were her favorite until she discovered the juice dispensers. She would fill up her cup, sit right down in the gutter in front of the cooler to drink it no matter how many people were standing in line behind her, then go do it all again.

Ride 'em, Cowgirl!

I wanted to walk to the day old bread store which is just a block from our house. I asked Miriam if she wanted to go in the stroller or the bike. She said that she wanted to ride her horsey. And bless her sweet little heart, she rode the horsey all the way there. It's only a block but that's a long way for those little legs. She loved it. Then she showed everybody in the store her horsey. They thought she was pretty cute. And they were right. Even cuter because I hadn't washed off the blue m&m that was all over her face. As we checked out, however, the cashier lady gave her a cupcake, so lucky mama got to carry the horse home. No complaints from the cowgirl, though, as long as she kept getting her bits of chocolate cupcake each time she asked "more please!"

Feliz Diesiocho!

September 18th, or el Diesiocho de Septiembre, is Chilean Independence Day. In my experience, it is one of the holidays more celebrated than others by the Chilean people. I entered the MTC on September 17th, and so have two days back to back where I find my thoughts meandering to Chile and my experiences as a missionary. Usually I make completos for dinner on el diesiocho, but I didn't get to it yesterday. It was a busy day and I kind of felt a little sad for not doing something Chilean to honor the day. Still, I must have thought about Chile more than I thought I did because I dreamt last night that on one of my yw activities (I'm in charge of the Beehives, the 12-13 year old girls), we somehow ended up in Chile. It was an accident but I took the girls around showing them places I had been and telling them about my companions, my Chilean friends, and the food and candy that I liked. The other leaders were kind of freaked out, as well they should have been, but I just mingled and chatted and felt right at home. Because I felt so recently Chilean when I woke up, I have had a lot of mission thoughts today. The most important one, though, is who I have become because of that experience, the sure knowledge I have that my Savior will help me through the things that I just plain can't do. That is the part of the atonement (just to show how dang Chilean I'm thinking now, I had to pause before I wrote 'the atonement' because the only word that came to mind was the Spanish 'la expiacion') that I feel the closest too. There are things that are so important to me that I want to do right. But this life is way too hard to do everything right. But I can turn my life over to Christ and when I get to the end of what I can do, he will guide my steps. And this I know. HAPPY DIESIOCHO DE SEPTIEMBRE!

Patriot Day

Miriam likes flags. For a while, I tried to figure out if her definition of "flag" was the American stars and stripes, or if it was any flag that waves. My answer came when she showed me a tiny "printed in the USA" insignia of a flag on one of her books. That and she never pointed out the flower and bug flags that wave around the neighborhood. At the same time, she has her little yellow flag that she likes to wave and she calls that "flag." Anyway, she loved the Healing Field in Sandy this year. As soon as we drove into view, she stared out the window saying "flag... flag... flag..." She ran around and around, amazed at how many flags there were. She lifted the flagpoles off their bars to see how they were standing up. She twirled herself around in the flags, loving being surrounded by the flags. She ran as fast as she could through the flags. She pointed at flags everywhere she looked. When we were done healing, we drove off and she again just gazed at the field. "Flag... flag... flag..."

Little Mama

The other day, Miriam took her baby doll in the bath with her. She helped the baby bounce on her big rubber ball, one of Miriam's favorite bathtime activities. She would stop bouncing and make the baby sign "more" before she started it again. Just like mom and dad wait for her to ask "more" before starting something she likes. She then gave the baby a high five to the baby's sprawled out hand and gave her knuckles to the hand fisted up to suck her thumb. It was absolutely adorable. But I am definately going to have to watch what I do with her because it seems she is going to be a mirror for me.

Things I Love #3: Links the Cat

I absolutely love my Microsoft Office Assistant, Links the cat. I think he is completely adorable and I love having him in the corner of my screen keeping me company. The first Microsoft Assistant I ever was acquainted with was Clippit the Paperclip, and the first time I ever heard about him was in a letter from my sister Erin. In the letter, she said she started writing and a little paper-clippy guy with big eyes popped up and said "it looks like you're writing a letter... can I help?" When I first read it, I pictured a geeky computer lab assistant with googly eyes peering over people's shoulders and wondered why she was so excited about something that was kind of creepy. But when I read on, I realized my error. When I started spending time with Microsoft Office writing papers of my own, I always like having Clippit pop up and watch what I was doing. But his antics did get old after a while. Which made me look to see what other Assistants there were. That was when I first met Links. He is, like I said before, absolutely adorable. He purrs and meows and sleeps and prounces around just like a real cat but much less annoying because he doesn't block the keyboard or try to get you to pet him when you're trying to type. Miriam likes him too. If she comes in when I'm working with something on Word or Excel, she points and says "KITTY!" We then go through all of his animations and meow along with him. Yes, I could go without an Assistant and just hit "help" when I need help, but it's really not the help that I'm looking for. It is the companionship and humor that I most appreciate. If I don't close the Microsoft applications, then Links hangs out when I write emails or do searches on the internet. While I've never kept them open purposefully for this, I do like his companionship at this time too. And when I close the applications, he leaps into the background until the next time I am ready to spend some quality time with him. Now that I'm writing this, it sounds like I'm in desperate need of interaction as displayed by my idolization of the graphic of a cat. But I prefer to think of it as enjoying the small things in life. If you've never tried an Office Assistant or are tired of Clippit, I highly suggest you meet my good friend Links. He won't let you down!

Fashionista

Lately, Miriam has been more and more aware of what she is wearing and what pictures and decals it might have on it. Along with this comes a more passionate desire to choose what she wears. Usually I offer her a choice between complete outfits so we don't have anything terribly crazy. But that could only last for so long. Yesterday while we were getting ready to go to Wheeler Farm for an afternoon activity, her purple pants had sat in something and had to be changed. While we were at her closet, she grabbed her favorite skirt, a pink gingham pattern with a tiny little Elmo tag on the side. She wasn't about to not wear it. At the same time, she did NOT want to take off her yellow shirt with the purple flowers. Purple, pink, and blue are the three colors she can identify with a pretty good percentage so she knew I knew what she was talking about. I finally gave in and let her wear pink gingham with purple flowers, along with her favorite hat, thinking that the whole ensemble might detract from the red road rash she currently sports on her cheek, her ear, and down her neck. No, it not poorly applied blush. I am still in control of that, at least. I should have realized it really wouldn't have mattered. After her wade in the ditch turned into a sit down, she stood up and declared "WET!" So the mismatched outfit came off, but she enthusiastically opted to keep the hat. She loves hats and any time she sees somebody wearing one, she shouts "HAT!" But I shouldn't have been surprised at how well she pulled the entire look off. This little chica just might be rewriting the fashion code.

Anything Can Happen!

While I was working at Jordan Valley, I came up with a lot of fun groups combining music, books, movement, whatever. Every once in a while, I'd do one of the groups with a bunch of normal kids and had a lot of fun with it. I always thought "gosh, if I could find a place I could do one or two fun groups a week and nothing else for a decent pay, I would totally go for it." Fast forward to last summer when Miriam was getting big enough to take places without a valid and real fear that she'd completely melt down. I started checking out the library programming that they had for kids. I went to the Whitmore Library in Cottonwood Heights, the Sandy Library in Sandy, the Murray Library in Murray, and the Tyler Library right here in Midvale. Most of the groups were fine. Some were even good. But the professional eye in me always thought "oh, I would have done this," and "I would say that..." And part of me really wanted to lead a group so that Miriam could attend a group done to her mother's professional standards. So I asked Kami, my friendly local librarian, about their special programming. She said to write up a proposal and to send it to her. She said she thought the going rate is $50 for an 45 minute-ish group. So I wrote up a proposal that had several different ideas about groups I could do with a bunch of kids combining music, books, movement, etc, entitled it "Anything Can Happen!" and emailed it to her. She promptly emailed me back and asked if I would like to do this througout the county library system or just at Midvale's Tyler Library. I thought she loved my idea and wanted to spread me around, so told her that I would love to go throughout the system. "In that case, you need to send it to this other lady..." Sigh. So I sent it to the other lady. About two weeks later, I got a phone call from her saying that she'd love to talk to me about special programming and could I call her back. This was in March, just before a trip to Boise. So I called her back. When I got back from Boise I called her back again. A month later I called her back again. After a while, I decided that she must have died without giving her phone pin to anybody and that my messages were just floating around the Salt Lake County Voice Mail system. That seemed to be the only logical explanation of why nobody had called me back. So I put the library group idea on the back burner and started something new. I did a little summer music class with some kids in the area. I did both theory stuff and fun things and quite enjoyed it. But when the class ended a few weeks ago, I didn't feel a great pull to start another yet. I did start thinking about my library proposal again and decided to figure out who the programming person was now that the one I had called was so assuredly dead. Yesterday I got a phone call from the original library programming lady. Imagine my joy to find she was not dead but instead alive and well enough to be working! She said she was working on December-February's special programming and had pulled a file with my proposal in it. She wanted to know if I was still interested in doing special programming at the library! Absolutely I am! So we chatted for a while and she is sending my "Anything Can Happen!" special programming out to the branches of the library so the local librarians can sign up for me to come do my dog and pony show for them. At the end of the month, she'll email me back with times that the libraries have requested and we'll go from there. I am so excited to see how this all comes together because in my mind it's the best of any possible worlds. I get to go do groups without having to commit more time than just the group time to the place of business. The people who attend the group get to attend for free. And more important than anything else, Miriam does in fact get to attend a group that is done to her mother's professional standards. When I get my schedule, I'll be sure and post it so I can have groupies that come just for me. I'm just glad that I wasn't doing it as a primary source of income. Job hunting is frustrating enough, but when they don't call you back for six months, it would be even more so unless you're like me and just taking life as it comes with a husband who is making enough to pay the bills. It just goes to show that if you just wait for long enough, that "Anything Can Happen!"