Keira's First Swimming Pool

After a stressful day yesterday, it has been nice to relax today. Before I found out about Eric's phone call, I was able to buy Keira a swimming pool for under $9. I set it up for her and she has been loving it. She loves playing in the water. Might as well enjoy the warm weather while it's still here. I do like that fact that it has cooled down some. I don't care for the heat. Anyway, Keira had a great time playing in her pool.

Edited: After her nap, Keira went back out to her pool in just her diaper. After a minute or so, Eric and I checked on her and she had taken her diaper off. What can we say? Our daughter is a naturalist. *shrug*

Tough Times

Eric has been hearing rumors at work about layoffs since Wednesday. I told him, if it was me, I would ask my supervisor what was truth and what was rumor. Well, he did call on Thursday night and he got a call back this morning. He was laid off. They were planning on telling him when he got to work on Tuesday, so I'm glad that he did call and we found out before then. He has been on the phone all day looking for a job. Eric is good at getting right on the ball. He has a few leads, but he will be searching more next week. I've even picked up an application employment at Barnes and Noble. I just don't know what to do with little miss Keira. If I do have to work, I'm sure gonna miss spending all day with her. But you gotta do what you gotta do, especially to survive. We are not limiting ourselves to employment in this county...even this state. We will go where we need to go. Please keep us in your prayers.

And to top it all off, I read a statement about the leak of Stephenie Meyer's Midnight Sun rough draft. Here is the link to Stephenie's website and her statement: www.stepheniemeyer.com. She even posted a link to the rough draft. I'm torn to read it. I read up to chapter 3 last night then stopped. It just didn't feel right. Stephenie had mentioned that the project is on hold indefinitely. I was so sad because I was really looking forward to reading the finished, polished and published book. I'll just have to be patient and hope that she will finish it sooner or later. That was the cherry on top of today.

Hopefully we will be going up hill from here.

Support Stephenie Meyer

Ok, first of all, I believe everyone should have an opinion whether it be good, bad or indifferent. I, however, do not agree with how some people will express their opinion. For instance, the negative comments about Stephenie Meyer's latest book, Breaking Dawn. I can see how some people were disappointed in how it was written, the storyline and the ending. I thought it was lacking in a couple of areas, but overall....I loved the book. I have read several comments about how people hated it and it ruined the whole series for them along with their comments towards the author personally is just plain....cruel. True, every author must take the good with the bad and they can't please everybody, but there is a certain finesse it should be written. If one doesn’t like the book, write why they didn’t like it and leave it at that…move on. Plus, it is a fiction book…who knew where the story was going to lead?!

The other day, I followed a link to another bloggers website to read that she believes that Stephenie Meyer is racist and also makes comments of how it all leads to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Crazy…I know. People have been spending too much time looking for things like the above mentioned in fiction books, written for entertainment purposes, and not just letting the books take them for a ride. It’s a crazy world we live in.

On the brighter side, my friend Jeremy has set up a blog to support Stephenie Meyer. Check it out: http://www.supportstepheniemeyer.blogspot.com/ I’m so excited to see how many people signed up in the first 24 hours and I noticed today that the site was mentioned on the Twilight Lexicon!!! Way to go Jeremy!!!

Ok, I’m done with my ranting and on we go!

First "Official" Activity Day

Today was my first official Activity Day. I was recently called to be the Activity Day Leader in our Primary at church. My first meeting was just after I got home from California (Aug 9th) and I was not prepared, that is why I am calling this one the “official” first day. As the girls came over, I had a word search of the First Article of Faith waiting for them. It kept them busy while we waited for everyone to arrive. I had a game of Jenga prepared in a way where we could get to know each other better. I had made several questions and taped them to the blocks. When someone pulled a block out that had a question on it, everyone had to answer it. We went through two rounds and then it was time to make the ice cream. I found a recipe online on how to make “Ice Cream in a Baggie”. We put the ingredients together and had a good time shaking the backs to make the ice cream. The activity went a little longer than planned, but the girls seemed to really enjoy themselves.

A Zoo Day

Keira and I went to the Hogle Zoo with my friend, Julie Weir and her daughter, McKinley. It was a surprising day to start out…Keira slept until 9:40 in the morning. That is extremely rare. Once we got everything packed in Julie’s car, including our two big strollers, we headed off to the zoo. The girls were so excited to see the animals. We had a great time walking around, talking and watching the girls’ reactions. It was after 1:30 in the afternoon when we left and headed over to Donna Mills’ house to have some lunch. She is a Pampered Chef consultant. She had a party that night and wanted us to be her guinea pigs for a new recipe. I surely didn’t mind. Julie and I felt bad because we were running behind on time and we would be eating and running. Donna was willing to cook us lunch anyway. She prepared a Philly Cheese Steak Burrito…it was really good. It wasn’t until almost 3 pm when Keira and I got home. It took Keira a little while to calm down to take her nap, so it wasn’t until 4:30 when she finally laid down. When Eric got home from work, Keira came stumbling out of her bedroom. We could easily tell that she was still half asleep. Keira climbed into Eric’s lap and fell asleep. After about 10 minutes, she moved and sprawl across the arm of the sofa. We decided to leave her there for a little while and then we moved her back into her own bed. It was a fun filled day for the little one and we are planning on going to the zoo again sometime next week.

What does a ________say?

After waking up this morning, Keira and I were going through all of the animal sounds. I would ask her "What does a horse say?", then she would make a sound like a horse. While going through a lot of the animals, out of no where she asks, "What does Darby say?" I looked at her wondering what sound Darby, from My Friends Tigger and Pooh, says in Keira's mind. Then Keira says, "The Super Sluthes are on the case!" ha ha ha Can you tell that she is a Disney girl???

A Keira First!

As we were sitting down, getting ready to eat our breakfast, Eric suggested that I help Keira with the blessing of the food. I looked at Keira and she started saying the blessing all by herself! It was so darn cute! She didn't need any help and she said the whole thing from start to finish. We are so proud of her.

More Info On The Harry Potter Move

Although I am VERY excited to Twilight to be coming out 3 weeks earlier than planned, I am sad for those major Harry Potter fans. I like Harry Potter, but not to the point of being extremely depressed about the movie being pushed back to next summer. However, I can't imagine what it would be like to be told that a movie you've been so anxiously waiting to see is being pushed back 8 more months then expected. To wait another year. Sad. :( I feel for you! (Sorry, Leilani)

Here is an interesting article from MTV about the movie move. Check it out: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/08/15/did-harry-potter-release-date-change-to-avoid-twilight-competition/

Twilight Movie News Flash!

I just got home from a scrapbooking night at a friends house when I decided to check up on my email and Twilight news. I got a nice surprise when I read the first item on Twilight Lexicon's news blog.

Apparently, the Harry Potter movie that was to come out in November was bumped to next summer leaving a spot for....Twilight!!! Yes, it is true!!! The opening of the Twilight movie has been moved up from December 12th to November 21st!!! How nice is that?! That is definitely going to be on my list of thanks at Thanksgiving.

For those who would like to read the official message, here is the link to the info on Stephenie Meyer's website: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight_movie.html. Have a great day!

Breaking Dawn Concert Tour in Los Angeles, California

Just as the excitement of the release party dies, another adventure comes around the corner. I had the opportunity to see the author, Stephenie Meyer, once again, this time in Los Angeles, California on August 7th. She was on a four city concert tour for Breaking Dawn with a performance from Justin Furstenfeld, the lead singer from Blue October. It was an amazing experience, listening to the music and hearing Stephenie’s answers to some pretty good questions. You can check out the manuscript of the Q&A at this website: http://www.twilightlexiconblog.com/?page_id=1302 Once it was over, the balcony was dismissed first (where we were seated) to get in line for Stephenie to sign our books. We were done and on our way back to our hotel by 10pm, but not before buying a T-shirt. Earlier in the day, before the concert, Pam, Katrina and I went to Disneyland for a little bit of fun. And most of you know how much I like going to Disneyland. It was a short, but amazing trip and I would do it again in a heart beat. Thanks Pam!!!

Breaking Dawn Release Party

I have been neglecting my house, MySpace blog and some people for a special event that happened on Friday, August 1st . As most of you know, I love the Twilight series written by Stephenie Meyer and the fourth and final book, Breaking Dawn, was released on August 2nd. I was a volunteer for the release party at the West Jordan Barnes & Noble bookstore. I was the wondering photographer. I loved going around and taking pictures of all of the people there have a good time playing the activities and visiting. The party was put together by my friend Pam. There were several activities including pictures with Edward and Bella. The party was wedding themed and it started at 8:30pm and the books went on sale at 12:01am. I, along with several of my friends, dressed up as vampires. I was a “vegetarian” vampire with the topaz eyes. I went as the character named Carmen from the books. Eric even helped that night and he ended up being Charlie. He helped at the Pin the Tail on Jacob activity. He said he had so much fun see everyone be competitive at shooting Jacob in the butt. Get this, we even had a silver Volvo! The each layer of the cake represented each of the four books. Edward played the piano while Bella tossed her bouquet. He even played Esme's favorite song and Bella's lullaby. There was even a member of the Volturi Gaurd roaming around. Fox 13 News was there the whole night doing little segments along with 101.9 The End radio station who was giving out a free book every 15 minutes! I had such a great time and it was definitely worth all of the work.

Twicon 2009?!

Yes, I am a Twilighter and proud of it. I often check out two fan websites for updates; www.twilightlexiconblog.com and www.twilightmoms.com. As I was checking on the updates, there is a possibility of a Twilight Convention in 2009. Check it out here: http://twicon.org/. I think it would be awesome to attend.

A blog??? Yes, I broke down.

After visiting my cousins and their family this last Sunday, I've decided to break down and set up a blog. I do have a MySpace account, but this way anyone can see what's going on along with pictures.

I, Gina, will be the one posting, but I will post about our whole family. I'm so excited to get people updated. And, of course, the pictures!!! If you don't know, I love photography and taking plenty of pictures.

Hmmm....what else can I say at this moment??? Oh yeah! Bear with me while I do this. I have a hard time writing in a personal journal (what journal?), so if it's been awhile from the last time I post...light a fire under my butt to get me going. ha ha ha

Ok, Nellyn, Crystal and Ginger...here we go!