Why are we SO grateful on Boxing day?

Yesterday was a VERY bad driving day. In fact, it was SO bad, that Ethan and Kim who were heading back to Texas made it from Kim's parent's house to our house. They walked in and said, "Can we stay one more night at your house?" We were delighted to have them another day!

Erin went to the temple about 6:30 pm with a friend from Australia. As she left, I made a comment about how bad the roads were and it probably wasn't a good night to be out. But when somebody from Australia comes...you just go. About 9:30 my phone rang. It was Erin. "'I've been in an accident. My car is totaled but I am okay."

She was heading south on Highway 89 going about 20 miles an hour. A jeep(from Herriman) was going north, hit ice and spun out of control. It clobbered the front of her Toyota. It was amazing that she wasn't hurt any more than she was.

We are taking her to the doc today. Her face is swollen. She has a purple dimple. And both her feet are hurting. She is using Scott's cane and looking totally hunchbacked. But she is SAFE! And it could have been SO MUCH WORSE!!! If the jeep had hit her a few more inches closer to the driver...wow. Who knows if she would be here today....at the least, she might be in the hospital!

She told us that going to the temple had been such a sweet experience. They did some of her Aussie friend's ancestor's names. About two minutes before the crash, she had a silent prayer about "please let me be safe." She was obviously shaken up and shivering, (It WAS a COLD night!) but she was in good spirits.

We are SO GRATEFUL she is okay and all we are doing is looking for a new car and tending her minor (hopefully) injuries.

Erins car "Gladys Tinman" being put on the tow truck!

Thank heaven for air bags!

Erin is showing off her puffed up cheek after the collision. She has a purple dimple today!

I don't think it hurt the engine - we can probably fix her ... not!

Look where the bumper of the Jeep hit the windshield - She is extremely lucky and blessed!


This is the Jeep that hit her!

What Will Ari Do At The Second Coming?

Jane's Post: Yesterday, Cade, Sophie and Ari were with us (Jane and Erin) and we were talking about the Tab Choir Christmas concert. Cade and I were mimic-ing Bryan Stokes Mitchell and his version of The Friendly Beasts. Sophie mentioned she and Ari couldn't go because they didn't have enough tickets. I said, "But you can go next year and you will be 8 years old."

Sophie replied, "Well, we were just gonna lie and tell them we were 8." Borrowing a quote from Uncle Dave, I said, "Well, it will be better for you at the Second Coming." Ari piped right in, "I can't wait for the Second Coming. I am going straight to Africa and pet a lion."

You don't have to wonder why I love my GRAND kids so much!

Why would I post a picture from the Dark Ages

Well, I could not stand the previously posted picture entitled "Handsome Scott". It was just too much! I decided this would evoke more pleasant memories - especially during the Christmas Season! So Merry Christmas everyone! This photo was taken over 35 years ago.

What Does Jane Think About Conference Posts?

Jane and Amelia Jane

THANK YOU!!! for all your conference tidbits. Way to strengthen me! So many spoke to me. We had just taught a lesson in our Strengthening Marriage class about Equality and Unity in Marriage. Elder Eyring (or Hal as Pres. Hinckley called him) totally reinforced our lesson. I just kind of was in awe of his talk. SO cool!

Thanks to all you Blog Commenters. I thoroughly enjoy reading your thoughts also.

And Jeni, you DEFINITELY should be in Rome with Jason, Finn and Tracey for the temple dedication. Start planning and saving now! Love, MJ

The following is a post copied from our Daughter-in-Love's blog aka Kim-the-Girl:

• President Monson, "Never let a problem to be solved be more important than a person to be loved."
• Two talks in a row talked about being "poisoned by degrees"
• Sister Dalton, "The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare." Quoting the winner of the New York marathon.
• I loved what Elder Hales had to say about meekness. I've always wanted to understand it better so I can be it better. I also appreciated his words about, "opposition presents opportunity."
• Unity. So many people talked about unity, wasn't that interesting. I guess we really need to work on that. I liked what President Eyring said about speaking kindly of each other, "There are times we must judge others... but more often we have a choice."
  
• I loved Elder Bednar's words about more meaning prayer...I love the way he gives his talks so we can really follow his counsel. I appreciated his example of one losing their temper and praying for forgiveness and help and thanks... that one was for me.
• I thought Elder Lawrence Corbridge's talk was interesting in the way he presented it. Of course, the truth taught being, either you follow Christ and are happy or you don't and you're not. I love that he explained that following Christ is an act of God and that every single person can do it. Unlike human endeavors when the higher the standard the fewer the people can actually reach it. And I love, love, love this statement, "The Lord's way is not hard, life is hard. Life is also simple." We have 2 choices, either we follow the Lord or we don't.
• I love the story told by Elder Holland about the 7 year old boy and the cows crossing the river. I cried and cried as I felt the spirit on this one. "On occasion we may feel alone" but God is always watching and angels are always there, both immortal and mortal.

• And finally...Elder Wirthlin. His talk was shouting to me! ... I loved this talk. In case you've forgotten his 4 ways to be happy with whatever comes our way, I'll remind you. Laugh-I have since laughed and laughed and I feel so much better; Seek for the eternal-wow. I need help with this one and these kids; Understand the principle of compensation-I hadn't ever thought about this, but I liked what he said about "every tear today will eventually return 100 fold in rejoicing" I guess I have a lot of rejoicing to look forward to; and Put our trust in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ-He wants us to succeed and to be happy and you know with God nothing is impossible even being happy.

What's Smells Fishy?

How silly does a post need to be to make the users actually post on their own? Here goes another shot at it:
Question: What did the fish say when it ran into two cute girls and a Grandpa? (no Eric, not a cement wall)
Answer: Nothing silly, fish can't talk. This was July 24th, 2004 at the fish farm. Grandpa is teaching Sophie and Ari how to fish.


Here they are waiting patiently for the fish to bite.

Luckily, the fish were biting that day and...

Whabam! Sophie catches a fish! Its a good thing there was more than one fish because...

Whabam! Ari catches one too! What a great Grandpa (not to be confused with Great-Grandpa) to teach his granddaughters how to fish.
This probably wasn't silly enough to make Scott and Jane actually post on their own but at least it will keep you all coming back until they actually do.

p.s. this was done and posted at the same time as the ping pong post. Good job Scott and Jane! (if you are the real authors of that post) I'll leave it up anyway because of the cute pictures!

What's so funny?

Kim the Boy! He is the author of our last post! Kim this was fun! Feel free to continue to tell about our many adventures in life. By the way, all those things were supposed to secrets! So, everyone out there ...........SHHHHHHHHH!

Why do we forget to make new posts?

Well Erin just reported from her mission in Brisbane, Australia and did a wonderful job! But back to our story. Where have we been? Some have asked our kids where we disappeared to. Others have speculated with their own theories. Here is a list of some of the theories:

• We ran away and joined the circus, Scott guesses people's age, weight, or gender, and I ride a motorcycle through a ring of fire
  
• We decided to move to the conference center and live there in hiding, like the phantom of the opera
• We moved to Alaska to hunt wolverines
• We thought it would be fun to live like Survivorman and 'rough it' in the wild and went to the Uintas (mountain range) with only a video camera and the pitching machine and saw how long we could survive with only these items
  
• We have been making a fake Bigfoot costume for Scott to wear while I filmed in order to become famous for shooting a rare video of the legendary creature.

Well, none of these are true. You see, Scott was out surfing and I was busy being the Sheriff of a cartoon world.


As part of being Sheriff, I had to bowl a perfect game so that the church-going ninja in the background wouldn't reak havoc on the small town of crazyshoeville and goldbeltland.


We are finally back from our big adventures and now that Erin is home we hope to have many more, only closer to home.