Friday, November 21, 2008

Turkey Day Cartoons

Got these cartoons emailed to me today and thought they fit well with my rant from yesterday; of course these cartoons are from my perspective, not Tashas.
J.D.


Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Best Holiday Ever

• Is there truly a better holiday than Thanksgiving? Most people get 4 days off, guaranteed every year, you can’t even say that about Christmas.
• You can mill around the house all day long snacking on relish trays (unless you’re at the Leishman’s house, apparently relish trays are off limits until meal time; isn’t that the purpose of relish trays, to dabble in small finger food prior to the big dance? And the weird part is the relish tray is made first thing in the morning and it just sits there all day saying “please partaketh of me” but one little snitch and you’re relegated to the kids table for dinner.)
• Anyway, back to Thanksgiving, you can watch football on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
• It’s the only time you can eat cold pumpkin pie for breakfast and nobody flinches except for those that don’t like cold pumpkin pie for breakfast.
• Families get together; however this is only good if you really know the family well. Remember those awkward Thanksgivings where you had to go over to someone else’s house and eat with distant cousins and random people? You were forced to sit for like 8 hours with hardly anything to talk about, hence put some football on the tv and let that be the bond, although that wasn’t even a safe bet, there was always some dork cousin that thought he understood football and wouldn’t stop talking and analyzing the game doing his best John Madden impressions along the way.
• I digress once again, Thanksgiving is the best still.
• Who can forget Turkey Bowls? Rolling out of bed at about 9 a.m. and heading off to the local slightly damp grass field to gather with a bunch of guys to play a little flag football. I got a few people together to play last year, mostly Priests and Teachers from my ward. We played for three hours straight; couldn’t walk for 4 days after that however.
• Thanksgiving dinner at 2, nap at 3. Seriously though, how is this not called “Glory, Glory Halleluiah Day."
• Making stuffing is truly a work of art. Some people have it and some don’t. You just know when you have good stuffing.
• Black Friday. So last year Tasha heads out to her first black Friday ever. Says the misses “Do you mind if I get up a 4 a.m. and go shopping? (me thinking, I don’t care if you get up at 4 a.m. for a root canal, just don’t wake me up) I will be back by noon and you can let the kids hang out and watch tv (me thinking, the kids won't be the only ones hanging out watching tv; pumpkin pie for breakfast anyone?) I would like to get as much Christmas shopping done as possible and get I’ll get tons of good deals (me thinking, why not get up at 3 then?) I’ll even take the baby with me so I can nurse her (me thinking, you had me at hello)

J.D.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Job Change

No I'm not moving or even getting a really big pay raise, but I've been asked to take on a new assignment in our division. Many of my family actually don't even know what I do now so for those already falling asleep, careful not to drool on the keyboard. I am now going to be the Director of Distant Site Education...woo hoo, I know exciting title. I will help place student teachers in their last semester of college into elementary and secondary classes. We have partner schools in Salt Lake, Las Vegas, and Mesa, Arizon that take our student teachers. I just spent four days and three nights, driving exactly 1,986 miles getting the low down on the new job.

I drove with my co-worker that has been doing student placements for the last four years. He is a major road-warrior. Loves to drive; me, not so much. Spent 12 hours in the car yesterday driving home from Flagstaff, AZ...12 hours! Toward the end I was leaning forward in my car seat trying to stretch my back out; says he "does your back hurt often when driving?" Says me, "I don't know, never spent 12 hours in a car before." Needless to say, as soon as I take over the job, I'll be using a great thing called an airplane.

The student teacher placement will be the side note to this job. I am actually heading up a new initiative to take online degrees to members of the church that can't come to a BYU school. This will be a bit more fun. It's a brand new assignment and I will be working under the direction of the President and V.P.'s on campus so I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Tasha's SEVEN Tag

Seven T.V. shows I watch
1. The Office
2. Pushing Daisies
3. Chuck
4. Friends re-runs
5. Oprah
6. Ellen (sometimes)
7. My own worst enemy

Seven things I did yesterday
1. Mop, vacuum, clean
2. Tend sick Gracie
3. Text JD all day
4. Pay Bills
5. Take Hanna to the dentist
6. Go to WalMart to buy flouride for Hanna
7. McDonalds for dinner - you can tell who won that argument...

Seven things I am looking forward to
1. Gracie getting well
2. Date night with JD
3. Finishing housework - yeah right
4. Twilight Movie
5. JD finishing PhD - Disneyland, here we come!
6. Temple Trips
7. Resurrection - Patti, this one is for you.

Seven things on my wish list
1. My Christmas shopping to be done
2. Trip to Hawaii with JD
3. Trip to Disneyland with whole family
4. a bigger kitchen
5. My kids to be best friends
6. a bottomless bank account
7. Healthy whole family - Gracie, Mom, Sande...

Seven favorite foods
1. Johnny Carrino's parmesan chicken
2. Grandma Leishman's Rolls
3. Mom's cookies - any kind
4. Thanksgiving Dinner - Dad's gravy
5. Sheri's chocolate trifle
6. John's stuffing (sorry dad)
7. a good steak

Monday, November 10, 2008

The SEVEN Tag

The Seven Tag

JD’s list of “THE SEVENs TAG”
Seven t.v. shows I watch...
1-The Office
2-Chuck
3-Pushing Daisies
4-My Own Worst Enemy
5-Saturday Night College Football
6-Sunday Night Football
7-College Gameday on ESPN (eventhough I don't get to watch this much, still one of the best shows on tv)

Seven things I did yesterday...(Saturday)
1-Homework (finished a paper…yea!)
2-Cleaned house
3-Took all 5 kids to a movie by myself (Igor, wouldn’t recommend)
4-Tilled the garden
5-Raked leaves
6-Watched Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma State
7-Ate Craigo’s pizza for dinner

Seven things I am looking forward to...
1-Finishing another PhD class (only another 15 months to go)
2-Thanksgiving (by far the best holiday ever!)
3-Thanksgiving break (four days off, lots of food and football)
4-Date night with Tasha
5-Weekly Temple trips
6-Sunday dinners
7-Sunday afternoon nap

Seven things on my wish list...
1-New bumper on car
2-Warm weather
3-Finishing my PhD
4-More time to study scriptures
5-More date nights with Tasha
6-Bigger water heater (too many kids, not enough hot water)
7-Three car garage

Seven favorite foods
1-Steak
2-Crab
3-Clams
4-Cheesecake
5-Chocolate chip and peanut butter pancakes
6-Terryiaki hamburgers (from Red Robin)
7-No bake cookies

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Halloween

Hanna and Me at the trunk-or-treat

The kids loved our "scary" pumpkin we carved for family home evening.

Hanna was a "Purple Rock Star" - several people we know didn't even recognize her!

Grace was Tinker Bell

Gunnar was a Dementor (Harry Potter), and Gavin was a vampire (Twilight)

Lily Sue was a poodle - she was so amazed that people kept putting candy into her little pumpkin.

JD was the official "candy man" at the trunk-or-treat. He loves to dress up!

Lily Sue

This is typical Lily Sue style, kickin back and enjoying a sucker in one hand and popsicle in the other...