Ideas Set in Motion

Here is the next animation. This one took me more than 100 hours of planning, designing, animating and rendering. Poor Emily! It's made for a competition held by Current TV and sponsored by Lexus. The end titles were provided by Lexus. In a little while, the video will be posted on Current TV's website for voting. There is a judges panel that selects three winners sometime near the end of Feb. There is also an honorable mention that is a people's choice award. I'll let you know when it's up on Current TV's site. Having lots of fun!

Watch it on YouTube

Brenna and Bocelli

Welcome to Brenna! We are so excited you are here and can't wait to meet you and to be with your wonderful sisters and parents next week. This link takes you to a heavenly song and seems appropriate for this special day. How can it get more heavenly than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Andrea Bocelli?
http://god-gives-us-strength.blogspot.com/2009/12/lords-prayer.html

And here's one just for my grandkids...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BDVvB7Xx1w&feature=channel

Happy Day

Yay for new little girls! Yay!

New(s)

You just won...a brand new car!

Actually, we didn't. But we bought an old one. Yay! So, Brandon and Angela decided that it would be nice for Angela to get a job that actually paid, so she did! Nomen Global, the ESL school I've been working at since September of 2008 (off and on), has been struggling financially (hence the off and on part) and are a couple months behind on payroll. Basically, we live off Brandon's part-time paycheck. For that, and a few other reasons, we figured now was a good time to get a new job.


I now work at New Haven. It is a residential treatment center where I will be working with "at-risk" adolescent girls. However, the job is in Spanish Fork (abut 25 min. south of Provo) in a place buses don't go, which meant I needed my own form of transportation.

Brandon, with all of his car knowledge, shopped around and found us a really good deal on a '97 Chevy Cavalier. (It is still weird to me that even a '97 is still an old car.) It's a great little car and pretty fun for me to have.

I am really excited about the job. It will be really challenging but really rewarding (sometimes) and will be the exact experience I need for once I graduate in June and we move to Corvallis in August so Brandon can study Biochemistry at OSU. So, lots of new(s) for us!

I just wanted to introduce you all to my new boss! I am enjoying my new job at Deseret Book. I can't think of a better environment to work, especially since I work in the new Distribution side selling temple clothing. All day long I hear inspiring music and am surrounded by wonderful people to work with and serve. An added bonus for my family is you all get 25% off of any purchase at Deseret Book and 30% off at Seagull Books... including online purchases. I am working part-time, right now 3 days/week, 6 hour shifts. It is the perfect amount to get me acclimated to working. Part-time also gives me the flexibility to take time off when needed/wanted... like for our upcoming trip to Miami and Newark, Delaware. We can't wait to meet that new granddaughter, assuming she doesn't delay her arrival!

In looking through the church's website, I came across this clever idea and thought I would share it...

Family Home Evening Helps: Picture a Song

Mark and Cindy Smith, "Family Home Evening Helps: Picture a Song," Ensign, July 2005, 73
When our children were small, we often taught them songs from the Children's Songbook for family home evening. We would first explain a song, then invite the children to illustrate the lyrics. After learning several songs this way, our children soon had their own illustrated versions of the songbook. Even our smallest children who couldn't yet read could easily follow and understand the songs because of the pictures they'd made. As a family, we enjoyed singing the songs around the house or while traveling. When our children hum or sing Church songs, we feel blessed that they are choosing to "seek the Lord early while in [their] youth." Our hope is that as they grow older, "He will help [them] to know the truth" ("Seek the Lord Early," Children's Songbook, 108).

2010 Church schedules

Here’s everyone’s Sunday meeting schedule for 2010:

EST CST MST PST
Mom & Dad: 2p- 5p 1p- 4p 12p- 3p 11a- 2p
Nikki & Jason: 12p- 3p 11a- 2p 10a- 1p 9a-12p
Russ & Anne: 9a-12p 8a-11a 7a-10a 6a- 9a
Doug & Emily: 9a-12p 8a-11a 7a-10a 6a- 9a
Ang & Brandon: 3p- 6p 2p- 5p 1p- 4p 12p- 3p

What You Didn't Know About the Mouse

Hey fam. Just thought I would share the next project I have finished. It was fun and it has an unexpected ending. Feel free to visit the site also and join the cause!

Watch it on Youtube

Care to join us?

We've been enjoying very fine weather [name that movie!] the last couple days...last night's low was -9 with a wind chill of -25! Not the lowest we've seen, but this year we put up not just drapes over our big living room bay window but a nice warm blanket too. We've been watching the temperatures inside that bay window with amazement. Last night's low was 22 degrees! That's inside our house! Crazy. And our kitchen temps have been around the high 40s, low 50s. We are very looking forward to getting a new kitchen door with a good seal and new windows in a couple rooms this month as well as more insulation around the foundation and in the roof. Luckily the rest of the house stays around 68-70 degrees. We are very grateful for a nice wonderful furnace that was replaced last year. I was just telling Grandma Foley a couple days ago that that day was in the 20s and it was so warm people weren't wearing their coats outside...me included!
I have to say my favorite gift from Christmas this year is our electric blanket on our bed.
Lest this makes you want to stay away, here's one more invitation from two people who'd love to have you.

Don't worry...we keep each other very warm.