Car... What Car?

Dear Mom and Dad,

About 3 weeks ago I was pulling up to a stop minding my own business and getting ready to make a right turn when I saw this Ford Expedition in front of me. Little did I know my driver didn't see it. I figured she had because she stopped and was waiting for an opening in traffic to make the turn. Well she saw an opening and started to go! I tried to scream and yell but it was too late. I went right under the Ford and got all banged up. Not a thing was done to the Ford. In fact you couldn't even tell that it was just hit in the butt! Don't worry though after almost three weeks of being towed around and in the Collision Repair Shop I am all better and SHINNY! They fixed me up almost like brand new. I missed my driver lots and am glad to be able to take her where she needs to go and she is paying even more attention to everything going on around her! Hope you enjoyed the picture of the Before and After.

Love,
Georgetta the Digger

"Red Fridays"

My friend sent the following message to me in my email and I decided whether or not it is a true story or one that was made up to get the word out I didn't care. It hit me with such feeling and made me realize that I may not voice my support for our troops enough I was going to blog it. Whether you are Liberal or Conservative or somewhere in between I hope this message touches your heart. So here's to our troops, those alive and those who have left this life fighting for not only our country but other countries too!

"As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays.'

Last week I was in Atlanta, Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos.. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.

When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said 'hi.'

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.

The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her Daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.

When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military-looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it..

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.' He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.'

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.

RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.

We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many American, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of Americans supports our troops.

Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday -and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.

By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.

If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever; certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is...We need your support and your prayers.

Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday."

This is what we did!

For our first anniversary together we decided to stay a little closer to home... meaning that we traveled a short time to Manti Utah. We have decided to make it a tradition to go to the temple... no matter where that may be. The drive down was really pretty and since I drove down I have no pictures... Sorry about that! We got to Ephraim and Gavin had many, many, many years ago been to a place called Joe's Valley and so he wanted to go there. He said it should be a really pretty drive and is mostly paved so I readily agreed. Well come to find out that the drive was not paved at all... Some of it was gravel but not paved! Silly Gavin! Well the ride to Joe's Valley was absolutely gorgeous and I was enjoying myself... until... we hit this sketchy area about 4 to 5 miles before Joe's Valley. There were parts of the road that really scared me and I think it scared me so bad cause I didn't have control over the car and that made me sooooooo nervous! Well we got there and I think I was still trying to calm myself down that I didn't even take any pictures of the valley! Oh well. Well on our way back I drove so that I wouldn't freak out so bad but I quickly discovered that I still didn't like that stretch of road. I may have had some white knuckles or something. We got back to the summit and I decided I wanted to take us down Manti Canyon. Well Gavin didn't want to go down it cause he didn't know how well the dirt road would be or if my little Toyota could handle it. Well against his better judgment I still wanted to go down it! The road we were on is called the Skyline Drive and you can get to it from HWY 6 and goes all the way to I-70! Crazy long. Well we reach Manti Canyon... Finally... and began our trek down. Well little did we know really what we had gotten ourselves into as we passed an older gentleman in a truck he smiled but more of a "what the heck?" smile... LOL Oh boy we were in for a great trip and didn't really have enough gas to travel back to Ephraim canyon so we continued on. We soon found out that this road was not made for regular Toyota Corolla's but more for OHV's or 4 wheelers. Oh the madness! We did make it down though okay and I think the car only hit bottom once but since we were going around 5 mph it didn't do anything to my car. Well we eventually made it down and after spending over 4 hours driving around in the mountains and being really tired and anxious to get to the Temple it was well worth it for the nice pictures that we were able to get. If you want Gavin's side of the story go to this link http://gavinbingham.blogspot.com.

This is from the summit of the mountain we were on.

Here are some more pictures of the view and my car taking the drive... (I have re-named it Digger)

Here are the ferocious animals that we encountered on our drive

That evening we went to the Temple and did some sealings and then we went to a nice little steakhouse grill for dinner. The following morning we went and walked around the Temple and took some pictures of it. A couple with us in front and the rest well with the Temple by itself! It was the best way I could think of us being able to spend our first anniversary together! Thanks babe for a great weekend!

The following are some of the pictures we were able to get.  This has become one of my favorite temples to take pictures of!

 

 

 

 This is the cute little motel that we stayed in!

ONE YEAR LATER!

I can't believe that is has already been a year!  It seems like yesterday that we just got married and had the fear of not knowing 3 weeks before our wedding date if we would get the okay from the First Presidency, but it all worked out and we know now that the day we got married was the day we were meant to!  So for today I have decided to go over some of my most favorite memories from the past year!  The 12 most, one for each month.  (Cheesy I know, but fun!)

12. Road Trips
We have been on one major road trip and lots and lots of little ones.  Our big one being driving to Colorado and our little ones mostly are driving to Logan.  They are nice because sometimes we chat about life, sometimes we chat about religion and sometimes we don't chat at all cause one of us sleeps, will read, will listen or sing to the music.  I am looking forward to many more through the years to come!

11. Bicycling around town!

This has become a favorite way to exercise for me. We don't do it a whole lot but since the summer has come along we fixed up my old  bike that I have had since I was probably 13 and taken it to the streets of Spanish Fork.  We have found that there are a few places around here that are totally peaceful and beautiful.  It is a fun way to get out and do some exercising that isn't too difficult for either one of us!

10. Balloon Festival!
Even though waking up at 5:40 am was difficult for the both of us I think it is one of the memories I am going to have forever.  It was so much fun to be able to go together to watch hot-air balloons go up in the air and just spend the morning together without the worry of work later on.  I think that we are going to have to make a tradition out of it since it is an annual thing!

9. Cuddling on the Couch!

Okay so I bet one thing you didn't know about Gavin was that he is the best cuddlier in the whole world!  At least for me his is.  He love to cuddle and I have always been a fig fan of cuddling.  It is so cute how sometimes he'll come to me and want to just cuddle.  Especially when we were watching the Bachelor and all those girls were so caddy!  He was EXTREMELY cuddly then and I loved it!  He kept saying how glad he was that I wasn't like any of those girls!  HA HA I love it and took complete advantage of it!

8. Fighting!
-K- so I know what you're thinking..."one of your favorite memories is of you fighting?"  Let me clarify...  It isn't REAL fighting!  I guess you could call it more of teasing each other incessantly!  We will have a fake fight where you could say that he says something and I take it as though he is calling me fat/crazy/ugly/whatever, even though what he said is absolutely no where near what he really said and sometimes it happens vice verse.  It is a lot of fun cause we know that neither one of us really means it and it usually ends up with us wrestling/tickling each other.  (Sorry no pictures for this one!)

7. Scaring!

I LOVE jumping out and scaring Gavin!  I scare him constantly and the best part is that he gets me back once in a while and even though he is a lot nicer than me I tell ya, when he gets me back he gets me back GOOD!  Oh sure I get a little upset...I  know I shouldn't...just a reaction... I do laugh about it shortly after my heart has stopped beating a thousand beats a second!

6. Playing Tetris/The Wii!
So if anyone has ever played Tetris against me they know I can be pretty brutal and well lets just say not humble at all.  I do know that there are many people out there that can kick my trash...but when Gavin and I play I always have to talk trash with him since he can whoop my toosh at Mario Kart!  We don't play it as much as we used to but it has always been fun... I don't think he likes to play with me much anymore.

5. Storms! 
Oh the storms!  We have been able to watch some fun storms this year.  Of course they are only lightning and I would have to say that my very favorite one was when we were going to head down to the Utah County Fair and see what it was like.  We were on the motorcycle with the lightning flashing all around us.  It was only a little scary but all the while fun!

4. Motorcycle Rides!
So riding the motorcycle is the funnest!  It is always nice to be on the back and ride around my arms wrapped around him no matter where we are going!  I am so looking forward to riding the bike through the canyons this fall!  Oh it is going to be gorgeous and the camera will be coming with us!

3. Christmas!

It was so nice having our first Christmas as a married couple!  The decorating.... ($20 (I had a lot of decorations before hand), the wrapped presents.... $200, the Christmas Tree.... $25.  The look on each others face Christmas morning.... Priceless!  ****amounts are guess-timates****

2. The Honeymoon!
I loved being able to take a week and leave the rest of the world behind and ride roller coasters until our heads hurt (which they did), watch entertaining shows, pig out, check out Universal Studios, drive down the California Freeway in rush hour traffic (not so much fun and thanks to GPS we took surface streets instead) and not having a care in the world other than to have fun.

1. The BIG Day!

WHAT A DAY!!!  This had to be the most amazing day and bestest memory over this past year!  It was so awesome to be able to kneel across the alter from the man that I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.  To be able to commit ourselves to each other for time AND all eternity and promise to do the best we can to keep our marriage happy and full of love.  It was the best decision either one of us has ever made and that is what makes it the bestest memory thus far in our lives together!  I loved our wedding day as I am sure many of you loved your own wedding day!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABE!

ONE YEAR down and MANY more to go!

***** some pictures from google search

WTH!!!!

I have a major problem! Actually I consider it more of a bad habit but either way I LOVE SHOES!!! I know I am not alone in the world on loving shoes. I also know that not every girl loves shoes or owns a lot of shoes. I do own a number of shoes but not as many as some girls do and the majority of my shoes are flip flops. So because I own a lot of shoes/flip flops I love to coordinate my shoes with my outfits and try to where different ones everyday. I also love being able to take my shoes off once I get indoors so that my feet can feel absolutely free and not so confined. As a result of my free feet I tend to take off my shoes wherever I am and not always (okay almost never) put them away (there lies the bad habit)! This morning I went to our Super Saturday for Relief Society and when I got home Gavin had done a lot of cleaning with the house! What a wonderful husband I have!!!! He had me look at the kitchen and the bathroom and then he took me to the bedroom.....there in the middle of the floor he had a pile of shoes...no not his shoes...but MINE!!!!! I laughed and laughed and realized that I had a horrible habit! He found my shoes strewn about all over the house! I think I even have a pair down in the basement. So I of course being me took a picture or two so I could blog about the craziness of my problem!


Someday I sure hope that I will be better at not leaving my shoes strewn about.... Of course it's like the saying "OLD HABITS DIE HARD!!!"