Nick:  Can you turn the radio down I have a headache.

Me:  I didn’t actually respond to this but what I thought in my head was:  Actually, the radio is up because I have a headache from all the shenanigans you boys are pulling in the car.  I’m trying to drown you out.

I did actually turn down the radio because deep down inside I think I might actually be a nice person and care about how other people feel.

Alec:  Have you heard of e pluribus unum?

Max:  No but I’ve heard of supercalafragalisticexpialadocious.

I love the way Max thinks.  I may not know that but I know this.  He’s such a super smart kid and wether he does it on purpose or not he’s good at painting himself in a good light.  Man, I love that kid.

But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and ^apray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will ^bconsole you in your ^cafflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down ^djustice upon those who seek your destruction.  Jacob 3:1

This is an excerpt from the Book of Jacob in The Book of Mormon.  I love love reading the words of the Prophet Jacob.  He first shows up in the Prophet Nephi’s work as Jacob is Nephi’s brother.  I always love that change of voice as Nephi records Jacob’s teachings.  Jacob is so easy to understand and relate to.  He doesn’t preach anything out of the ordinary, just the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He just does it in a way that makes me want to take a class from him.  I would drive a long way to hear him speak. To just sit and listen. To hear the allegory of the olive tree.

I think the whole Book of Mormon is easy to understand and follow.  I think it’s scripture for every man/woman.  You don’t need a higher education to get what’s being taught in there.  You don’t need to understand the social climate of the time or decipher interesting words.  It’s pretty straightforward.  That being said, and I love all of the Prophets in the Book of Mormon, I get a little thrill every time I read the teachings of Jacob.  It’s like he just gets me.  Down deep inside my soul gets me.

To read more of the Prophet Jacob’s words you can access The Book of Mormon online here.

Molding at corner where off white and brown meet.

Baseboard on brown wall.

You’re doing great hon.  It’s almost over.

In the baptismal covenant Max promised to take upon him the name of Jesus Christ (always try to live as Christ would live), keep His commandments and always remember Him.  Max has promised to help his fellow boys and girls, to always watch out for those around him.  In return he was given the Gift of the Holy Ghost.   That means that as he keeps his baptismal covenants that the Spirit of God will be his constant companion.  To help keep him safe.  To help him know right from wrong.  To comfort him when he’s lonely or afraid.

1. Truman has been learning to skateboard. He is really getting good. (Last week he had his first bail+rasberry)

2. I helped Gary build a potting bench. I took the day off work and together we built it from scratch.

3. We took some pics of the kids dressed up and ready for church.

In the above Truman reminds me of the guy from green day.

The two pictures on either side are watercolors that Scott did when he was in school  The one on the left is a rose the one on the right is a banana and a peach.  

I also hung the oil painting of the Oakland Temple that my brother gave us for a wedding present upon

his return from his mission in Brazil.  I love the colors in that painting.  The bright pink is my

favorite.  In case you’re wondering what it’s hanging next to it’s our wall of kids artwork.  All he stuff they bring home from school goes up on our big wall behind our computer.  It’s the best wall in the whole house.

It’s about time this condo got spruced up.  Do you have some favorite artwork in your house?

Grandma Sandy and the grandkids

Grandma and Grandpa Schegel with our kids

Max, Tru, Emma and Reuben with the new Nerf guns

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.

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.

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.

So the bad news is. It was worse than I thought it was going to be. I hadn’t factored in the hyperventilating and the fear of deep water. When I jumped in the pool and saw that it was 13 feet deep I literally freaked out. Oh man, did I freak out. So I throw my head in the water and push off and start swimming as fast as I can and the first breath I get water in my mouth but keep going and I keep gulping down water. That’s not right. That’s not what’s supposed to happen. So I do side stroke the rest of the way across the pool and try it again. It happens again. Over and over. So I just hung out at the side of the pool for a while trying to figure out what on earth I’m doing wrong.

The good news. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I was swimming too fast. That sounds weird, I know. I wasn’t giving my out of shape lungs the appropriate amount of time to take a breath in. I was stroking my arms too fast. So, I slowed way down and just took it easy across the pool and I actually made it to the other side. The other thing I had to do was look forward not down because the deep pool really did freak me out. So the realization now is that I can probably do the 200 yard swim, I’m just going to have to do it really slow. My goal changed from finishing the race in any place but last to finishing the race, period. And you know what? I think I can live with that. If I have to I’ll side stroke my way through the course. Why not?

The even better news. I got to go to lunch with Scott. We walked into Le Boulanger (I get the California Fresh sans onions) and he said, “We’ll get you a Coke.” Music to my ears. Does my man take care of me or what? I even talked him into buying me a bundt cake on the way out. That’s what I’m holding in my picture. My Coke and bundt cake. Clisty, I’m sure it’s not as good as the ones near you but as Gary says, “It’s not a gold medal but it will do.” So all I’m saying is if my swim sessions end with lunch with my husband, plus a bundt cake, sign me up.

Now, I’m writing this post because I want to see my progress over the next couple of weeks. I’m hoping there will be some. This is such a big journey that I wanted to share it. It’s so weird how the running and the biking have come so easily to me but the swimming is kicking my butt. I think I have the method down now so this should get easier.

Is anyone interested in doing the tri with me? I don’t expect you to go as slow as me. I want to make that clear. Go as fast as your body lets you. It would just be fun to see each other at the beginning and end. Or, if you have a bike that someone could borrow, let me know. I know that’s what holds some people back. I think this is going to be hard but totally worth it when I cross the finish line. That’s what I’m holding on to.

So on a side note the picture was Truman’s picture taking debut. My kids are the ones that usually take the pictures of me and for 5 and 7 year olds I think they do a great job.

Also I was pretty defeated when I came home today until I found my friend Clisty’s blog post for the day. She found a site called Cake Wrecks where they feature professional cakes gone wrong. Hilarious. I think I spent an hour cracking up looking over all the cakes. My favorite is the fireman which you have to go pretty far back into older posts to find. Well worth a look. I even added them to my blogroll and rss feed, I enjoyed it so much. Thank you, Clisty.

Anyway, back to family. We had a really good time hanging out and playing at the beach. The kids continued to get along really well. Mark, MarKaa and Scott got some time to body board (Scott looked wicked hot catching those waves). I didn’t go because I don’t like cold water. Really don’t like cold water. I used to do it when I was young and my nerve endings weren’t so hyper developed. I’m resigned to being the mom on the beach with a book while Scott and the boys board to their hearts content. I don’t think Scott’s happy with that but all I have to say is, you go skydiving with me and I’ll go body boarding with you. Fair trade as far as I’m concerned.

So, which beaches do you go to? Do they have a trek to the car? Do you pay for parking?

We practically walked right on to The Flight Deck (Top Gun). Jake did a really good job on his first upside down roller coaster. He loved it and wanted to ride again.

There was a really great balance during the day as the cousins all got to know each other again and we got to know Jake and Ryan. My kids were practically glued to Jake’s side. Tru and Oli wanted to ride everything with him and he was very obliging. Great older brother.

The day ended with all of the kids having a sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa Schlegel’s and the other four adults going back to the park to ride the bigger rides. This is a horrible thing to complain about but there were no lines. That means we went straight from one ride to the next. Luckily I have a hubby who gets sick just as easily as I do so we sat out a bit to calm our stomachs down.

I will say the Demon used to be my favorite ride growing up. I would ride it over and over and never get sick. The corkscrew did me in this time. Yikes. Now my favorite ride is Invertigo. No neck breaking action there. Just fun dangling backwards action.

I just took my kids back to GA today and we checked out Boomerang Bay, the water park. It was pretty fun. We spent most of our time on the lazy river since Oli was big enough to do that. I sat too far back on my inner tube and got dumped

into the water. Good times.

We had a great time with Mark and MarKaa and their kids when they were down. We’ll have to do this again.

So first let’s start with the first chapter. How fun is it that Bella got a new armored car. I found a site with pictures of the car and it’s not as flashy as Bella makes it out to be. But I guess in Forks a tinted Mercedes is flashy. I can drive down Central and see any number of Mercedes, Volvos, BMWs and then a Lambourghini will drive by. Just another day in the Valley. But I guess in Forks the Guardian would be a big deal. I just can’t wait to find out what her real car is. That should be fun. Then again Edward has a reasonable car so maybe it’s not as fun as I’d like it to be.

Then Bella has to go and say that she was having trouble picturing a dull concept of husband with Edward. “It was like casting an archangel as an accountant; I couldn’t visualize him in any commonplace role.” Give me a break Bella. So maybe she hasn’t grown up as much as I thought she had. Scott is my hero. He is better than Superman and Spiderman and Batman combined so to hear Bella talk about husbands as being dull and commonplace is ridiculous to me. She obviously doesn’t know what a husband is.

You gotta love Renee’s response to Bella getting married. I had a feeling it would be like that but it still was a welcome surprise. I had braced myself for the worst.

And the wedding is only a few days away!!!!! Is it going to go off without a hitch? Probably not but that would also be a nice surprise.

Here’s where we talk predictions.  I don’t have any concrete beliefs that I just know are going to happen but I do have some ideas.

So I can go either way with Jacob. I think she’s set it up with the Legends that he could be gone for good, but it’s just so sad to think of it that way that I can see him coming back. Probably not at the beginning since Seth says he’s in Canada and the wedding is a few days away. Even so I can see him sweeping in in his white button up shirt and being Bella’s best man. But my gut tells me that’s not going to happen. Not really my gut actually, it just seems like too happy an ending so I don’t think it’s going to happen. Plus Bella didn’t invite him to the wedding so maybe being her best man would be overstepping his bounds. He was in so much pain the last time we saw him and from what Seth says he’s still hurting. It’s hard to believe Stephenie wont put some resolution and throw some goodness his way. But like I said, I can see it going either way.

While we’re on the subject of Jacob, I do not think that Leah imprinted on him though I know some of you would disagree with that. She was not being nice to him at the end of Eclipse and if she had imprinted she would have been everything that he needed. Not a thorn in his side. And I do think that in order to imprint on someone it has to be the first time you see them after the big transformation. But maybe that’s what all the Midsummer Night’s Dream business is all about. Maybe they start imprinting left and right and to multiple people and people they’ve already seen. Who knows?

Main bad guy: I think it’s the Volturi and I think maybe they’ll kidnap Bella either right after she’s been turned or before and then turn her themselves to try to get use of her “power.” Try to turn her into one of their elite maybe. That’s only if Aro’s involved though. I don’t think Caiaus would bother. I think that’s pretty far fetched but it’s an idea so I thought I’d throw it out there. Either way I do think they are the bad guys.

I do have the idea though that Bella will be a vampire at some point and she will be the one to conquer Jane. Since she’s the only one Jane’s powers don’t work against. Laura, maybe Jane is the queen and Bella is the pawn. What do you think? Bella still red with her own newborn blood.

Does Tanya come to try to sway Edward from marrying Bella and put Bella in danger herself? I’d guess no but again just an idea.

So that’s all I can think of right now, which is killing me because as you can guess I think about this constantly.  So now it’s your turn.  Post a comment and tell us what you think is going to happen.  Even those of you that don’t usually post. Post.  It will be so much fun to see what everyone else is thinking before Breaking Dawn comes out on Saturday.