Married again

Eric is on the maindland ladies and gents. After leaving on Saipan's Tues., travelling over 24 hrs, and touching down on our Tuesday, he finally made it safe and sound. It's so nice to have him here. We're making up for lost snuggling time. Yesterday we didn't have anything planned, we just relaxed. I DVRed the Office so of course we watched that. The Shrute farms wedding/Surplus episode...hilarious!

Then we both went to bed at 9pm which is definitely a record for me. I've been struggling to sleep any earlier than 1am this trip.

Yesterday, before picking Franky up, I did a spinning/core training class. It felt great! I also signed Eric and I up for a free 6-wk "Y" membership so let's hope we take advantage of it.

So far, we don't have much of an agenda. Volleyball tomorrow and football for Eric bright and early on Saturday. Oh, and Eric needs to get sworn in to the Idaho Bar at some point (only about a year overdue on that).

Family Advocates Fundraiser

Jason and Sheri and I got to go to a big fundraising event for one of our clients on Friday. During the event they introduced the new FA logo that Jason and I created, as well as a recent graphic that I designed for their 30th anniversary.

Twilight @ Midnight

Did anyone else think Twilight was like an extended SNL skit? I'll admit, I was one of the crazies who went to the first available showing of the movie, but I'll be the last to recommend it (unlike the book).

Likes:
Kristen Stewart (as an actress...I've never loved Bella)
Charlie
Alice
James (& Laurent & Victoria)
Emmett
Rosalie
Jasper (despite his goofy resemblance to Edward Scissor Hands)
Jacob (& Sam & Embry)
Soundtrack
When Bella meets the Cullens
The baseball game
The fight scene

Dislikes:
Edward (not attractive...and not smooth. What was with that first biology lab scene??)
The special effects (ie. Edward sparkling in the sun)
Edward in sunglasses
The story development
Jessica
Mike
Tyler
Eric
The fact that it felt like a made-for-TV movie
A majority of the acting (we were laughing at parts that were never intended to be funny)
They tried to pack too much in, and yet they left out a lot of good stuff.

That's probably more than you cared to hear, but those are my thoughts. Any directors out there who want to do a re-do?

My niece Cami and I being Twilight nerds

7 screens sold-out

Trying to fit in with the rest of the giddy girls there

PF Changs lettuce wraps before the movie. Highlight of the night. :)

Oceans Apart...day after day...

Being over 7000 miles away from Eric sends my mind in a constant rotation of sappy love songs (yes, even Richard Marx has crept in).

I miss my little Franky so I thought maybe you might too. The last few posts have been all about me so I think we're due for an Eric update.

As most of you know, Eric is the Saipan Branch President, and he's been working endlessly to help the branch. He's been especially busy lately trying to arrange a temple trip to TOKYO for next spring. So far, we're planning on 52 branch members attending. Of those 52 members, 21 will be attending the temple for the first time. Eric has devoted many hours to making this trip a reality. He's helping the members budget, he's figuring out tourist visas & legal papers, and he's searching for group discounts for airfare and lodging. It's a lot of work, but it will be an amazing experience. I've already seen several branch members moved to tears in anticipation for this trip and the sacred work that's going to be done.


This Sunday, Eric's speaking at the general session of district conference where he'll be speaking in front of about 700 people (most via satellite), including a general authority. I wish I could be there for that.

Jason Mraz

I liked this kid before his first album even came out, and tonight I finally got to see him in concert, and it was a blast. He's so talented. Great voice, great dancer, great performer. All around, a very entertaining show he put on.

Cute, eh?

I got to go trick-or-treating with some of my cutie patootie nieces and nephews. Some of them are starting to grow out of the trick-or-treating stage...It's a little sad. Why do we have to grow up?

"Trick-or-treat!"

Nothin' scary about it...

Halloween was yesterday, and it was a perfect day for being outdoors. My niece Cami and I decided to take advantage of the weather and autumn colors by taking a stroll along the river...

Human Rubberband

So it didn't take long after I got home for my 3 older brothers to beat me up just like old times. Except this time, instead of using their hands, they used a massive rubberband. I wish we caught it on video, but you can watch the YouTube video below to see how the game works. My first mistake was agreeing to play this game with 3 adult males. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but somehow I ended up with my face caught in the tightest part of the rubberband while the rest of my body slammed hard into my mom's house. I walked away with a sore neck, bruised back, and swollen bloody lip, but it was fun!

My nieces & nephews loved it!

Braden looking big and buff

Jason & Sheri (bro & sis-in-law)

Cortland (bro), Cami (niece) & Ty (bro)

Beautiful fall colors outside my bedroom window

Youth Conference 08

We did it! Our Youth Conference was this past weekend, and I'm glad it's over, but I'm also glad I got to be a part of it.

I say it over and over again, but the youth here are AMAZING! And so unified. It's a lot of work putting something like this together, but the youth in Saipan are unlike any youth I've ever seen. They make it all much easier and much more rewarding.

Today we had our testimony meeting, and I was really touched by the love that I felt for and from all of these kids (loads of testimonies and loads of tears). It's going to be really hard to move away from all of them in a year.

We be jammin'

Me & Nathan (Boss #1 & Boss #2)

Saemi, Tori, Abel

Can you spot the old lady above?

Kristina & Manny

Skylar & Jake

I got to play with a little Photoshop/Pop Art Display

Our T-shirt design

More photos here

Saipodities Part 3

So, apparently, this little guy heard about our new "Saipodities" section, and decided to stop by the house.

I was just sitting at my computer this morning, and I glance up and see this coconut crab on our deck. It was pretty cool. I'm glad it wasn't in our house though...they kind of creep me out with their little tap dancing claws....

Survived 26+ hours in the Pacific

James Bell, photo by Jacqueline Hernandez

Some of you may remember a previous post about Jim Bell, the 70 y/o swimmer in our branch. Well, we recently thought we lost him to the ocean. He completed his swim around the island of Saipan and decided to swim the channel back to Tinian. This particular channel has very unpredictable currents. So unpredictable that almost 30 years ago it took him 12 hours and just a few months ago it took less than 5. This time, however, he was in the ocean for an unbelievable 26+ hours fighting intense currents. I can't imagine being isolated and exhausted in the ocean miles away from shore in the middle of the night. (Apparently, he was stung several times by the jellyfish who like to surface at night) At about 9 o'clock that night, after no one had heard from him, they filed a missing persons report and sent a boat and helicopter out looking for him. Apparently, the helicopter's spotlight just missed him at one point. He wasn't discovered until 11am the next day, 2 miles NE of Tinian, and even after all he'd been through, he still refused to get in the boat, and he managed to swim the last 2 miles to shore. He may be stubborn, but he's also very loveable! We're so glad he's ok! Check out the Clawsons blog for more details: http://tiniantimes.blogspot.com/ NEW: Jim Bell's account

Skinny

"Skinny" is a boonie dog that likes to hang out at our place. We've been spoiling her with human food, and our neighbor has been feeding her as well. I wish I had a 'before' picture so you could see the contrast between then and now. She was just skin and bones, but she's a happy pup now.