SchlegelRock

The van is totaled.  I just talked to the insurance rep and they’re actually giving us a really fair price on the van.  Which shocked me.  I have had a totally painless experience with Farmers.  I’m really glad we have them for our insurance.  As odd as this is to say it’s actually been pleasant to work with them.

So anyways I’ve already started shopping for a replacement.  I thought the H2 was a very reasonable family car.  What do you think?

Btw, I’m joking.  I would feel ridiculous driving this around.   My only requirement is a third row seat whether it be a van or an suv.  What are your favorite family vehicles?

I am so excited about my new blog.  I’m doing this with Julianne and Laura and it’s going to be all about media.  So all of the posts I’ve done about TV shows and Movies will be on the new blog now.  Schlegelrock will go back to being a family blog.  The nice part is this is just in time for the new Fall shows to start.  I’m giddy just thinking about all the great TV I get to watch soon.  We’re hoping to get people to participate in the blog and make their own posts so this should be really fun.

Come check us out! blogthedayaway.com

I am not joking when I say that on Sunday on the way home from the airport Scott and I were talking about accidents.  I was telling him that the only accident I had ever been in was when I stopped too close to the guy in front of me and the guy behind me hit me into him.  Barely a buckling of paint on my car and nothing on the guy in front.  I don’t really consider that an accident.  So I told Scott I think my time is up.  I think I will probably get into an accident soon.  Can you believe this?

This morning I was driving down Mary to drive Oli to school and this guy pulled out right in front of me.  I mean right in front of me.  I didn’t even have time to hit the brakes before I hit him.  The van plowed right through him though.  Dented his car and ripped off his bumper.  He wasn’t hurt and neither were Oli and I so everything is going to be fine.  He was pretty freaked out especially when he saw Oli but I assured him he was all right.

 So now it’s just all the claim work and getting the car fixed but how weird is it that I was just talking about it being my time?  Every once in a while I’ll have things like this happen where I feel afterwards like God was trying to prepare me for something hard.  It doesn’t happen very often though.  Or maybe I’m just not listening.  I’m just glad that the accident was so minor and nobody was hurt.

We had a very nice time in Arizona.  It was nice to finally see Mark and Markaa’s house and meet Markaa’s family.  They even have two dogs that the kids kind of got used to by the end of our trip.  My favorite part of AZ is the cacti.  I love to go up and feel the spines of a cactus.  I love how some of them are blunt and some of them are ridiculously sharp.  I even found one that releases it’s spines into your finger if you touch it.  Luckily they were easy to pull out but could you imagine falling into one of those.  Really any of them.  The cacti aren’t enough to make me want to move to AZ but I felt like a little kid playing with them.

I also found two flowers that I thought were absolutely beautiful.  One of them I’ve seen in CA before so I know I could plant it in my own home but the other I’ve never seen.  I don’t know the names of either of them so if anyone knows let me know.  I used the call the first ones whirlygigs.  But I just can’t see that being their real name.

I can not tell you how happy I was to get home to cool Sunnyvale.  Still warm enough to wear shorts but cool enough to tickle your legs and arms with the breeze.  I have never been so grateful for green grass and trees on every lot.  I was walking around just marveling at the beauty.  I love green.  Love, love, love it.  It just goes to show there’s a climate and location for everyone.  Mark and Markaa found theirs and Scott and I were born into ours.  What a beautiful world we live in that you can find a place that’s right for you.

Mark and Markaa were married today in the Mesa, AZ Temple.  It was a beautiful ceremony that actually got me crying.  These two have way more than a fighting chance.  I’m really glad we made the trip out here to experience this day with them.  Definitely worth baking to be here for this.  Congratulations guys!  We wish you the best.

I’m not suggesting this as a life choice because these two families have been through hard times but it was so fun to see the kids involved.  It’s great to see them bonded already as a family.  They’ve got four really great kids.

And you would never believe what happened.  My friend Sarah who lives in Las Vegas was at the Temple for her mother’s wedding.  Can you believe that?  She stopped me in the hall and I just about freaked out.  How fun is that?  Sarah reminds me of Heather Locklear.  Only because she’s a drop dead gorgeous blonde and she could totally kick your ass.  Well maybe I should just speak for myself.  I think she could kick my ass.  Either way, it was so good to see her.  What a great trip this has been.

We got into Phoenix last night (Thursday) and drove out to Peoria to stay with Mark and Markaa.  Our flight went really well but let me tell you what we had to entertain the kids.  We had Batman on the laptop and on the iPhone, we had the Nintendo DS LIte with MarioKart and Super Mario Bros, and we had two iPods if you include the iPhone, which I am.  We were totally prepared for the trip.  It went smoothly.  The kids were a little loud for Scott’s liking but I felt they did great.  The only surprise of the night was the Phoenix Airport.  It’s huge.  Holy crap.

Today we went to the pool and had a great time.  The surprise of the day is how huge the pool is.  They have a “play” pool that’s at least three times as large as our pool and then a lap pool and some water slides.  You didn’t read that wrong.  They have water slides.  They weren’t open today   We’re thinking of trying to get back tomorrow to play again because it is over 100.  Of course it is.  What else would it be.  We’ve got a big family dinner planned for tonight and then the big day tomorrow.  So far so good.

Ryan got Student of the Month today so we went down to the school to visit him.  In case you’re wondering who is in the pictures it’s Logan, Maxwell, Jake, Ryan, Tru, Addi and Oli.

I just finished the partial draft of Midnight Sun and just so you know, I’m not going to apologize for reading it.  Stephenie Meyer put this version out there for her loyal readers and I believe I am one of them.  If she finishes Midnight Sun in the future I will buy it and relish it as much as I have loved all of her other books.  If not, I have gotten a taste of Edward’s perspective and it was delicious.  The manuscript Stephenie put out is only the first couple of chapters of Twilight.  It ends before they even make it to the meadow which was totally heartbreaking.  If anyone else reads this let me know.  I want to know if Edward is who you thought he was.  I love him more than ever.  And I loved getting to know the Cullens better.  Aaah, I love how Edward describes Bella as silk over glass.  What a perfect description of how fragile she is.  I also love how Alice is fighting to know Bella but is also giving Edward his space to figure out what he needs to do.  I sincerely hope that Stephenie finishes Midnight Sun.  It’s fabulous.  If you haven’t read the partial draft, read it.

As you probably know, Stephenie was on Ellen today.  I loved Ellen’s opening monologue about vampires.  Very funny.  She said something about how they always look so great which is hard to do since they can’t see their reflections.  Funny stuff.  I skipped all the other guests and went right to my favorite author.  It was obvious that Ellen didn’t know who she was because all the questions were generic.  How did the story come to you?  How did you find an agent?  None of the juicy good stuff.  Oh well.  I’m happy for her fame and hope she’s happy too.  Did anyone else catch Ellen?

Well am I the only one disappointed with last night’s show?  They just had the Wipey’s for goodness sakes why another recap show.  I will say though that the whole show was worth watching for the last 4 clips.  The dodge ball sweeper was too much.  I was cracking up watching that again.  Especially when they showed the guy turn around and just randomly throw the ball at the guy behind him then they both throw their arms in the air.  I thought I was going to die.  And then the other one who threw the ball while jumping.  And the older guy with the beard who threw the ball like a grandma.  Oh, it’s just too much to even think about.

I don’t remember number 3 but oh, do I remember Jacob Mann.  Who doesn’t remember him?  The splits on the big ball.  Ah, a classic.

And of course my favorite girl, Ariel Tweto comes in number one.  ”Where’s the pole?”  That one will go down in Wipeout history folks.

I am glad to hear that the big balls will still be in the new obstacle course.  I hope they redo the final obstacle course.  It’s more painful than funny.  I want more funny.  The spinner is the only part I would keep.  I love it when contestants actually knock one of the cylinders off but nothing is funnier than when they hit it full on and get knocked back, flying into the water.  I can’t wait for next season.

What’s your favorite Wipeout moment?

Is anyone watching this with me?  The last two episodes have been amazing.  How great was it that Cameron turned bad.  You knew it was going to happen eventually but pulling out all the stops!!  ”I love you John.”  I always wonder how blurred his lines are with her.  She is a Terminator after all but she’s hotter than crap and more and more she’s either acting like she has them or she’s developing human characteristics like thinking about things before she does them.  Either way I’m loving it.  

Then Monday night to have Sarah totally disgraced was shocking because she’s so darn tough.  And I can’t say enough about this new Irish Terminator that’s made an appearance, Catherine Weaver.  Wow is she wicked cool.  And the best part is John and co. don’t even know who she is or what she looks like.  Awesome.

I loved that John brought Riley home from school.  Chances are pretty good she’ll just end up a bloody pulp.  I remember in Terminator 3 John has a girl who he was supposed to marry but her name was Katherine Brewster.  So unless they’re changing things up Riley is probably just someone to protect for a while, right?   Anyway, I’m glad she’s there to add another layer of interest to the story.

My favorite part is when John tells Cameron he doesn’t have to prove himself to anyone.  Way to finally get some balls.  I’m glad to see his character developing though I’m sure he’ll make some mistakes along the way.  And I always get a kick out of seeing David Silver (Brian Austin Green) from 90210 playing rough and tumble Derek Reese.

Did anyone catch these episodes or am I on an island all by myself?

Well, yesterday went really well.  I actually enjoy giving talks and teaching.  I feel so good when I’m done it’s totally worth all the work up to it.  This is going to be a short post.  I just thought since I don’t share a great deal of my spiritual side I’d drop a note.  The meeting yesterday was about obedience.  I was asked to pick two principles of obedience and speak on them.  I chose being prepared (saving money, food storage) and Prop 8.  For those of you who don’t know what Prop 8 is I’m going to do a post on it soon but the gist is to amend the California State Constitution to state that “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”  I chose these two subjects because the Spirit prompted me and I am really struggling with them.  What better way to gain a testimony of a subject than to study and pray about it?  This ended up being a fabulous learning experience for me.

Just in case those family members that live far away are curious as to what I said here’s my talk.  Be warned it’s sloppy and I don’t have any of the quotes cited.  I didn’t end up using parts of it because of time but this is the information I started out with.  It’s a Word document (I’ve never done this before so I hope it works) talk

OK, this is a request to you to tell me your favorite blogs that you read.  Currently I’m mostly reading friends sites and haven’t ventured out into the big wide blogging world.  That changed recently with Cake Wrecks (which has a hilarious one on there right now) and now with a couple of new sites.

The first one is another one from Clisty.  Keep ‘em coming please.  It’s thepioneerwoman.com  Now the name of this site turned me off at first but I thought I’d give it a try. It’s a really quaint, witty, hip site about a woman who lived in LA then fell in love with a rancher who she calls Marlboro Man and now lives on his cattle ranch.  She takes fabulous pictures and I haven’t checked it out but she has a whole recipe section too.  Clisty says it can get a little boring but I’ll check it out.

Then, Summer sent me a link to a company that makes greeting cards with “Mormon” sayings in them. lineuponlinecards.com  I hope they meant for these cards to be funny because they tickled me.  One of the ones that caught my attention was: “Wishing you ANOTHER YEAR to make the most of your PROBATIONARY STATE”.  I wish I knew what the makers motivation is.  How seriously they take themselves.  I definitely wouldn’t subscribe to this one but I might check in every once in a while to get a chuckle.

Summer also sent me, seriouslysoslessed.com.  It’s a spoof on Mormon mommy blogs.  When I first read it I was totally put off by it because I thought it was serious.  ”Modest bikinis!?”  But then I caught on.  Now I think it’s dang funny.  The nice thing is the site is sponsored so they currently have a pretty nice give away going on.  You should check it out.

Please send me links to your favorite blogs.  I’m having so much fun extending my blogging circle.

I don’t know what dance style this one is I just know the song got me.  ”You cut me open.  And I keep bleeding, keep, keep bleeding love.”  Man, how incredibly raw and visual is that?  It’s a wife who doesn’t want her husband to go off to work again and in the end he actually takes her beating heart out of her chest and leaves.  It’s so sad to watch but beautifully done.

Sorry for the poor video quality.  I searched and searched for a good one and this is the best I found.

Well, this whole experience didn’t start out as a makeover but it ended as one.  So let me give you a brief history here on my weight loss.  You’ve all probably been wondering how I’ve done it so here goes.  First I was on so much medication that my body totally shut down and I wasn’t able to eat.  Then once I was able to eat I was in the habit of not eating so I didn’t.  I’m totally serious when I say I very rarely get hungry.  And when I do get hungry I just get cranky.  I still have no draw to actual food.  I’m kind of OK with all of this to be honest.  It doesn’t really bother me that I don’t eat.  I know it’s not healthy but I seem to be doing fine right now so I’m good.  Before anyone gets too alarmed, I do eat,

 just not very much.  On top of that, I increased my activity level by running and recently biking.  I don’t count swimming yet because I don’t do it consistently and I’m still scared to get in the water.  So all told, I went from 187 lbs to 140ish (I haven’t weighed myself in about 4 months).  Pretty cool, huh.  I’m happy with the results.  So that is a size 14 to a size 6.  It’s hard to believe that I’m a size 6.  When I try on clothes I always take an 8 with me just in case.

So that was the first step the rest of it happened just within the last week.  I have been wearing an old, saggy, too big bra.  Oh, this thing was awful.  Just disgusting and misshapen and horrible.  So I decided to go bra shopping on one of my free days and got the best makeover money can buy.  Turns out I went from a 38 GG (that’s right GG, as in Ginormous Gazongas) to a very manageable 34 D.  How spectacular is that?  My new bras lift me up and give me the most beautiful cleavage I’ve ever seen.  Thank your lucky stars I didn’t take a picture to show you.  The girls look that good.  Drop Scott to the floor good.  Oh yeah.  That’s how Alisa got her groove back.  All that from Macy’s.  Thank you Maidenform.

Then, Reul Parent called and asked me to give a talk on Sunday.  You know what happened then?  Scott said, “You need a new outfit, don’t you?”  Uh, yeah, I most certainly do.  So I spent my next free day at Target shopping for a new outfit.  I got a cute one including shoes and brought it home to show to Scott.

You’ll never guess what happened then.  Scott said something to the effect of, “Alisa, If you’re going to buy nice clothes I’d rather you didn’t buy them at Target.”  He actually told me to go to JCrew and buy a skirt and then get some better shoes.  So I got a skirt from JCrew and a really cute pair of shoes from Nordstroms.  Someone pinch me.  Is this actually happening?  Now I still have to give the talk on Sunday, but I’m gonna look wicked hot doing it.

Thanks Scott.

Tru and I were walking home from the bus the other day and he all of a sudden got very animated and was asking me to stop.  I was totally perplexed and asked him why.  He said, “I want to climb that pole.”  Oh.  My first instinct was to tell him no (Pretty sad huh?  No is always my first instinct.).  Then I thought, “What the heck.”  So we stopped and Tru climbed the Stop Sign down by his bus stop.  He got almost to the top but started to slip when I finally got my phone out to take a picture.  Thank goodness we stopped.  He was thrilled and I was thrilled not only to watch him do something so cool but to see him so happy.

Then, no kidding, we got in the car and in front of me the car had a sticker on it that said “Cullen College of Engineering.”  Wasn’t I just asking you the other day if I would ever see a sticker that reminded me of Edward?  Now I know it should say College of Medicine but what if it’s Jasper’s school?  Who’s to say Jasper doesn’t acquire and affinity for engineering?  The bottom line is, I am ridiculous enough that this made me happy. (The Cullen’s are the good vampires from the Twilight series.)

And just now Truman ran out to the living room and said, “Mom, you’ve got to see this.  It’s so silly.”  So I went in to the bedroom with him where he was watching Mythbusters and he showed me a clip from the intro to the show where Adam says, “I’m making a rocket out of meat!”  Tru was so excited he said, “A rocket out of meat!”  He thought that was fabulous.  He came out again and asked me if we could try it.  I was sad to squash his dreams but I told him probably not.  Unless the Scouts has it as one of their activities, hint, hint, I really doubt I am going to personally involved in that project.  And that’s not for years to come.

Anyway, just a few things that made me happy recently.

I’m really sorry for the late notice on this one.  I seriously didn’t think anything new was going to be on this early.  Thank goodness it’s already booked on Tivo or I might have missed it tonight.  Terminator is one of my favorite shows from last season.  I’ve only watched the Terminator and Terminator III movies so I’m not totally versed in the Terminator universe but  I think the show sets place around the time of Terminator II.  John Connor is about 16 and not only has a robot (or whatever they call them) come back to kill him, a smoking hot robot has come back to save him.

Now, this warning is not for those of you who gave me a hard time about my Dark Knight warning.  It’s not for you.  It’s for those of you that have trouble with violence or suspense or any kind of conflict.  This show is not for you.  The whole show is based around conflict and struggle and blowing things up.  That’s why I like it.  It fills a deep need inside me to see things blow up or get pummeled.  So if you don’t want to watch it maybe your husband would.  I would definitely suggest this to any guy.

On a very different note, I watched Hole in the Wall last night and was very bored.  Same thing happened with I Survived a Japanese Gameshow.  Just didn’t do it for me.  I’ll stick with Wipeout.  My kids did enjoy it though so you might want to get your kids hooked on it.  I’ll definitely Tivo it for my kids.