Fun Facts for Valentine's Day

• About 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged in the U.S. each year. That’s the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.
• Women purchase 85 percent of all valentines.
• In order of popularity, Valentine’s Day cards are given to teachers, children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.
• Parents receive one out of every five valentines.
• About three percent of pet owners will give Valentine’s Day gifts to their pets.
• Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are the biggest holidays for giving flowers.
• Worldwide, over 50 million roses are given for Valentine’s Day each year.
• California produces 60 percent of American roses, but the vast number sold on Valentine’s Day in the United States are imported, mostly from South America.
• Approximately 110 million roses, the majority red, will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period.
• 73 percent of people who buy flowers for Valentine’s Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.
• Men buy most of the millions of boxes of candy and bouquets of flowers given on Valentine’s Day.
• In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.
• The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare’s lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine’s Day.
• Richard Cadbury invented the first Valentine’s Day candy box in the late 1800s.
• Alexander Graham Bell applied for his patent on the telephone, an “Improvement in Telegraphy,” on Valentine’s Day, 1876

Happy Birthday Cheyenne!!!!!

Start being very awkward
Refuse to eat your greens
Turn your room into a trash pile (Council Tip)
It's the law, you've reached your teens

Throw several tantrums daily
Become a right stroppy toad
You've got no choice you must obey
The Teenage Behaviour Code

It's said you'll get all grumpy
And spend too long in bed
Say "it's not fair" an awful lot
In your teenage years ahead

But these can be exciting times
Energetic, full of beans
Don't rush to be an adult
Take your time, enjoy your teens

A very happy 13th birthday

Called to serve

Gage was called to serve in the Philippines Bacolod Mission. He entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) an January 27th 2010 and will remain there until approximately March 29th 2010.

After attending his farewell here in Eagle Mountain 2 weeks later we traveled to Vernal to attend the other one.

This was the only picture I took of journey there and back. It is Gage and his Girlfriend Larissa.

On the day that he went into the MTC Gage wanted to go to the Provo Temple to get a picture of him will all of his siblings. In no particular order they are Abby, Kaitllyn, Cheyenne, Eryk, Zach and Brayden.

Here is with half of his siblings

Here he is with his mom and family

Here he is with his dad's family

After we got all the picture we wanted there was still an hour left before he was to report to the MTC. We all ended up at ShopKo in the furniture department visiting and enjoying out last minutes with Gage for 2 years. All too soon it was time for his parents to leave so that they could kick him to the curb.
They use to do a family program at the MTC but they sopped during the swine flu outbreak. Now they just let them out at the curb.

We did receive an email from Gage about a week ago. He gets 30 minutes on the computer a week during p-day. He wrote that he was doing well, learning the language and studying to prepare himself to go out into the field. He expressed great desire to get letters, and lots of letters. He stated that days that you don't get letters just make the days seem longer. I am thinking about cutting letters with my Cricut and just sending them throughout the week. Maybe eventually to spell out a verse from the Book of Mormon. If you would like to write Gage you can send letters to

Elder Gage Authnell Larsen
MTC Mailbox #167
PHI-BAC 0329
2006 N 900 E
Provo Utah 84604-1793

Another great way (and easy too) is to go to www.dearelder.com. You can write to him there and they will print it and deliver it as well for free. You will need to know that his box number is 167 and his estimated day of departure is 03/29/2010. I know he would greatly appreciate it.

We are all very proud of the decision Gage has made to serve the Lord and bring is word to those in other lands.

Kaitlyn's Birthday

We did celebrate Kaitlyn's Birthday on her actual birthday, January 7th. As aways I am behind on my blogging.

Make a wish

Present Time

Build a bear for DS

A dish made by her dad

Money

Polly Pockets

Her Birthday brownies

Playing the game

After many hours of frustration, I finally fixed my blog problem!!!!!!

It seems my blog is a bit messed up and the comment link, posted by and the time all now show at the beginning of the post instead of the end. So if you are one of my regular readers and after reading a post like to comment, you have to scroll all the way back to the top of the post. I have checked and double checked the settings and everything is where it should be. Somewhere though something isn't right. I am done obsessing over it though.

A bit of a funk

I have been in a bit of a funk the last few weeks and I have really fallen behind on my blog. I blame it on January. I have never really liked this month and I am not sure why. It stated out good I suppose with our New Years Celebration. The 2nd week I got sick and can't seem to shake it even to this day. I started out with having no voice and not being able to hear very well. When you work in a call center this is not an ideal situation. I went to the DR. at the end of the 1st week and he told me it was a common cold gave me cough syrup and said I would most likely be better in 2 days. Monday morning I felt worse so I started on an antibiotic. The 2nd week was the worst week of the sickness. Then there was Kaitlyn's Birthday (pictures to come) and Gage's 1st farewell (pictures already posted) After two weeks of being sick I started to feel better but still had a horrible cough, which would lead to headaches. I attempted to make a card for a friend and broke my printer. Well it got paper jam that Jared tried to fix by ripping the insides of the printer out. My mom got her teeth pulled and dentures so we spent some time with her and then there was Gage's farewell in Vernal that we decided to go to. Spent some time with my mom's Vernal family and then back home we came, all in one day. It was a long trip but fun (no pictures this time) Gage went into the MTC on th 27th (pictures to come) so we all got together to say our good byes. Took pictures at the temple and then hung out in the furniture department of ShopKo until he had to go. So he is off on an amazing adventure for the next two years. So very proud of him. Jared and I finally got new living room furniture. It has been about 7 years since we have something that was wasn't classified as Early yard sale. Of course the Sofa is already defective and we have to wait until March for the new one. Luckily they let us keep the defective one until then. Jared has been laid off since December and got a job with Pride so all last week he was in orientation. Now we are just waiting for him to get called out. My work is busy as ever and we were just recently named number 2 in the nation for customer service just behin Lands End, for the 2nd year in a row. Go Overstock!!! So it has been a very busy month and I for one am glad it is over. I will get back to posting soon. Hope all is well with my readers!