What a crazy neighborhood!

Maybe some of you remember the time the apartment complex across the street from us had a fire and the tenant died. Well, the whole complex got new windows, and two of the apartments were remodeled. Apparently crazy things like that are quite commonplace in our neighborhood. The paramedics have been to our street about 4 or 5 times this year! Once with the fire accompanied by several fire trucks and a few cops. Also there are some people in one of the houses that have some serious medical conditions of some kind so the paramedics have shown up 2 or 3 times for them.

Last night we had another "incident." Just as we had drifted off to sleep, Dave got up and went somewhere. When he came back he said, "Some lady just knocked on our door asking for someone named Meatball and she had an open knife!" I may have mentioned that Dave is prone to sleep-walking and –talking. So I was a little skeptical at first, but then I heard her outside our window slapping the brick wall of the basement apartment next door and yelling for Meatball. Dave had already called the cops, but he didn't know where she had gone, so he called them again and gave them our neighbors address. Soon there were 4 cops parked outside our house, and I went outside to point out where she was, then I went back inside. We watched through the blinds as the cops confronted her. They asked her to drop the knife several times, and then tazered her! She was very drunk so she had difficulty understanding what they wanted, but eventually they got the knife away from her. They cuffed her and put her in one of the cop cars and waited for the paramedics because she was bleeding. She could have cut herself or just fallen in her drunken state.

Understandably we had difficulty falling back asleep after all that midnight excitement!

Cedar Point, OH

Dave earned a free trip to Cedar Point, OH through his work at Primerica. Of course we love free, especially free vacations! Cedar Point is a crazy awesome roller coaster park. They have something like 18 roller coasters, most of which have broken multiple world records the first week they were open (top speed, highest drop, biggest angle of drop, etc.).

We saw Famous Dave while we were there! There he is!

This is us after our first ride on Maverick, which ended up being my favorite in the whole park. Next time we go, I'm going on that one twice, at least. There were lots of twisty turnies, and it was really long!

Second we stood in line for Top Thrill Dragster. This ride goes 120 mph in 4 seconds and 420 ft in the air and twists going up and then down. The whole ride is over in 17 seconds. Unfortunately we didn't get to go on this one. We stood in line, and it broke down when we got to the front, so we went on others instead of waiting.

Another ride we went on was Mantis. I enjoyed it. It was one that you stood up the whole time. Unfortunately the "seats" aren't very comfortable for the male anatomy, especially if that male happens to be tall. Dave didn't enjoy it.

Another ride we went on was the Raptor. This was my second favorite in the park. I'll definitely go on it twice next time we go. It was the kind that your feet dangle free and there are lots of loops and twists. It reminded me of my very first roller coaster in Denver 6 Flags, Mind Eraser or something. Above is an aerial view and a shot I took when we were waiting in line.

This is another ride we went on. I can't remember the name, but there are seats all around the bottom of the pendulum. The seats spin around as the pendulum swings. The pendulum swings so that you're almost upside down and you're going 70 mph. I'm sure glad neither of us get motion sick.

This is the line we waited in for about 2.5 hours for Millennium Force. This was Dave's favorite ride. I didn't like it too much. I don't like the falling feeling and this was mostly just big drops. The first drop is 310 feet. We waited in this line for about an hour and a half, and when we got to the front of the line (literally), the ride broke so we had to wait for another hour while they fixed it. It was the last ride of the day, so we figured either we'd wait to go on this one, or go home. I think it was worth the wait, Dave DEFINITELY thought it was worth the wait.

I can't wait until we can go again. (This was in April, I lost my phone in Denver on the way there.)

Alex’s Farewell

Alex went on a mission! I never even blogged about it! Why? Yes, because I had no pictures. A blog about a mission farewell is a little dull without pictures. He entered the MTC on Feburary 4^th to prepare for his mission to Frankfurt, Germany!

Here's the video of him opening his call (I'm filming, yes I jumped up and down and yelled…sorry)

Here is the traditional MTC sign picture. The shadows of the trees were a little strange across his face, but, oh well.

He then got his name badge thinger, and yes, there it is. His Dork Dot! Mahahaha. I speak of this as if I've been on a mission and have experienced the dork dot, but I haven't. I still like to pretend that it's really funny though.

Alex liked to pretend that he was pretending like it wasn't funny.

Here are my three brothers. They're my favorite brothers ever. The big question is, will Alex be the tallest, or will Daniel?

Alex and our parents.

My last picture with Alex, pre-fluency in German. Yes, he's my "little brother".

Last but not least: How many people does it take to un-sew the pocket of a suit jacket and put the name badge clip on?

Ketchup!

A family of tomatoes went out for a hike in the woods. The teenager tomatoes kept goofing off and dilly-dallying. Finally the Dad tomato went back to them. He stomped all of them and said: "Ketchup!"

In the next couple of days I plan to "ketchup" on my summer blogging. I am way behind because I didn't have the cord to my camera. Then I got super busy. Let's face it, I'm still super busy.

Car For Sale - Time to save up for a house!

2000 BMW 540i M-Sport Package w/6-Speed Manual Transmission. 138k miles. Few minor dents and scratches. Interior is clean with some wear on drivers seat. Car drives and performs well. Comes with Remus exhaust and AC Schnitzer Type III 18"x9" wheels and Nexen N5000 245/40R18 tires with 3/4 tread life remaining. Wheels do have some curb rash.

Cabin is luxurious and spacious and has the added feature of tinted windows for privacy. Despite being large and luxurious, the car still drives like a sports car while maintaining a civilized yet sporty ride. The heated leather front seats provide instant warmth during those cold winter months. 12 way power seats with 3 memory options also allow multiple people to enjoy this car without having to manually reposition the mirrors, seat or steering wheel positions.

The trunk is also rather large and will easily meet your cargo needs. The on board computer allows you to easily keep track of average mpg, distance before next refuel, estimated arrival at entered destination, average speed and much, much more. This car comes equipped with safety and convenience options new model cars have yet discover.

Fog lights and wheel center caps will be replaced prior to sale. Please call or email with any questions. $10,500 obo.

Dave
(801) 362-9282
2003DinanS3M5@gmail.com

Girl's Camp

I am the assistant girls camp director, so I get to go to girls camp at the end of July. I always loved girls camp when I went as a Young Woman, so I'm VERY excited to go this year. Obviously it won't be the same, but it still will be tons of fun. I've been trying to think of all the fun things we did at girls camp, and at girl scout camp when I went, and I remember I always loved the fun camp songs we would sing. I can't remember all the words to most of them because, let's face it, I only sang them at camp and that was quite a while ago. I googled camp songs, and found a couple, including one of my favorites. It's called Barges, and I could only remember one line from the chorus "Barges, I would like to sail with you, I would like to sail the ocean blue...Barges....hmmm hmmmm hmmmmm" So I found it on Youtube! yay for internet.

I just hope the girls in my ward will indulge me by singing along. I'm thinking of dragging my guitar out of storage and practicing up so I can play while I sing. We'll see how that goes. I haven't gotten it out yet because my left hand has these wonderful long fingernails on it that I'm very proud of, and I can't quite bring myself to cut them off just yet.

Anyway, here's the barges song. It's so pretty, and it's fun to sing in a round

Breakfast and other Exciting News

So this morning we decided to get up and go running. (Remember how I'm running a half marathon in 2 months, and I can't even run 10 minutes without dying?) As we were leaving we found a wonderful surprise on our doorstep!

There in the middle of our porch was a loaf of bread and a pan's-worth of cinnamon rolls!

We thought "well, that's weird" but not much besides that. After our run, we both packed ourselves a couple rolls and a torn of piece of bread for breakfast and went on our merry little way.

I actually came home for my lunch break today, because I wasn't stranded at work with no car. While I was home, there was a ding-dong at the door. It was our neighbor Mike. The conversation went something like this:

Hi Sarah, did you guys get some bread on your porch this morning?

Yeah! It was the strangest thing, did you, too!?

Uhm, well, no, but I don't think that the bread was supposed to be on your porch...

Awkward silence...

Well, see I have this friend who works at a bakery right around the corner, and he said he'd drop some off last night, but he can never tell our houses apart.

Oh no! I'm sorry! haha! We've already eaten half of it!

Oh that's ok, what kind of bread is it? Sandwich bread?

No, it's the pull apart braided kind...and cinnamon rolls

Oh cinnamon rolls! cool! Well, you should take some for you guys, too

Yeah, we already ate half of them. Here you go.

So that was a funny experience of the day. Next thing they know we'll be coming into their kitchen and stealing their milk and eggs, too. Better watch out neighbors!

On to more exciting news...

We watered the lawn last night! It was pretty sad looking. As soon as we finished watering, it started raining, and rained throughout the night, and some through the day. Talk about a deep water.