Farewell to a Prophet

Gordon B. Hinckley is the prophet that I remember most since he was the prophet for the last, and most memorable, 13 years of my life. I will miss him, his humor and his encouragement.

The most memorable talk from President Hinckley, for me, is the talk he gave on the "Be's". I'm sure many of you remember it or the modified versions of it, including the book Way to Be! But the thing that I remember most about the talk isn't the list of things to "Be", but the prayer he offered for the youth of the church at the end of that talk. That touched me more than anything. To have a prophet of God pray out loud for me, that's really something. At that time in my life I really needed that. So here's the prayer, which I'm sure he has offered more times that once, for the youth of the church:

"Now, in conclusion, I offer a word of prayer concerning you.
O God, our Eternal Father, as Thy servant I bow before Thee in prayer in behalf of these young people scattered over the earth who are gathered tonight in assemblies everywhere. Please smile with favor upon them. Please listen to them as they lift their voices in prayer unto Thee. Please lead them gently by the hand in the direction they should follow.
Please help them to walk in paths of truth and righteousness and keep them from the evils of the world. Bless them that they shall be happy at times and serious at times, that they may enjoy life and drink of its fulness. Bless them that they may walk acceptably before Thee as Thy cherished sons and daughters. Each is Thy child with capacity to do great and noble things. Keep them on the high road that leads to achievement. Save them from the mistakes that could destroy them. If they have erred, forgive their trespasses and lead them back to ways of peace and progress. For these blessings I humbly pray with gratitude for them and invoke Thy blessings upon them with love and affection, in the name of Him who carries the burdens of our sins, even the Lord Jesus Christ, amen."

Artists on my MP3

• Dashboard Confessional
• Better Than Ezra
• Ziggy Marley
• Gwen Stefani
• Otis Redding
• The Beatles
• No Doubt
• Ingrid Michaelson
• Paul Simon
• UB40
• Natasha Beddingfield
• Sean Kingston
• The Flamingos
• Travis
• Sia

The invisibles

Puppet for your thoughts?

Did you...?

I'm not alone

Be careful when you eat out...

I think I just received a message for you...

Thoughts

So I've been feeling pretty good lately. I've been working out regularly for one week and I'm not hating it. I have even woken up EARLY to work out! And I'm talking 5:10 AM, early. Amazin' huh? I'm impressed with myself.

In other news, Jonathan started his job today and I miss him. I can't wait until spring when we will have the same schedule (mostly).

And I've been working really hard for the last, say, two weeks and it feels good and is exhausting at the same time.

I really feel like somewhat of a new person. Let's see how long it lasts ;)

Later

Goodbye Puppies

So we said goodbye to Kookie's second litter of puppies this last week. They were so cute and I do miss them, although I don't miss cleaning up after three little puppies.

This is a video of the three pups when they were first learning how to run and play. They loved "fighting" with each other and their big brother Kimo. Enjoy!

Something New

I thought that I would start something new here. Every so often I will write a little something about my life to date. This is mainly an attempt to begin writing my personal history, and what better way to do it than here on my blog?

I was born in 1980 to my parents, Russ & Connie. I was the youngest of five children and I'm told I was quite spoiled. I don't remember very much of our life until we settled here in Utah when I was five. But I do know some stories about when I was little, like how my older brothers used to put lemon juice or Arbys' "horsey sauce" in my milk - they loved me so much. And I'm told that when the other kids were out playing in the backyard that I would stand at the back door, where I could barely peek out the window, and yell, "guys, hey guys!" I know my brothers and sisters always loved me because, even now, I don't have any memories of them being mean or resentful toward me. And I love them all too!

New Year and stuff

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it's been since my last post (not that anyone else has noticed). But I guess I should say something about the holidays - they were great and now they're over (sad).

Here are some new things for 2008 (I don't want to call them resolutions because I haven't really resolved to do them).

• I will be working one Friday a month in this new year of 2008 and not because I choose to (sucks)
• I will try to exercise more. I haven't been exercising at all so I figure I'll shoot for once a month at least
• I will try to eat better (i.e. cook more)
• I will try to study the scriptures instead of just read them
• I will try my best to get pregnant (that should make Jonathan happy)
• I will finish at least one quilt
• I will spend less time watching tv
• I will plant a vegetable garden
• I will take more photos
• I will get sealed to my wonderful husband in the temple

I can't think of anything else. Hope your new year was happy and your resolutions are resolute.

Merry Christmas!

This is the annual Saluone family Christmas photo. I'm not entirely happy with it, but I guess that's what I get for waiting until the last minute to take the photo.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas! We love you!

Christmas Eve

We had a nice Christmas Eve with my family, the Cluffs. We had dinner and my sister's kids sang songs with my dad. The first video is my favorite, the kids are singing Away In A Manger with my dad on the guitar. After Megan lifts up her shirt she dramatically starts mouthing to her mom, "my pants are falling down!" It's great.



This is a video of the kids singing a church song, they are so good!



We hope you all had a good Christmas Eve!

"smart"

I've been pondering this subject for a little while now, don't ask me why.

What is "smart"? How do you know if you're "smart"? How do you know if someone else is "smart"? Who is the judge of "smart"?

Here are three things I know:
1. Opinions do not make you smart
2. Degrees do not make you smart
3. Everyone I know has made a stupid decision, said something stupid, or done something stupid (myself included, of course)

If being smart is a lack of stupidity then is anyone really "smart"?

I Always Knew I Was Hot...

What My Kitchen Looks Like Now (and probably for the next year)

Please pardon the mess. Actually, this is what my kitchen looks like (now) when it's relatively clean. I am pleased with the progress, it's just that I'm not pleased knowing that this is as far as we can get with a budget of $0, and it's going to be some time (about a year) until we'll be able to afford the rest of the renovations (flooring, cabinets, countertops, etc.). So I'm posting these pictures to show people what my kitchen looks like without actually making them be in my kitchen.

Puppies!

So our darling dachshund, Kookie, had another batch of pups. Three this time, same as last time, and they are adorable. No black ones this time :( But these three pups are sure tiny and sweet! Check them out:

"...all soul searchers"

So I'm starting to get into the Christmasy mood. Music really helps set the tone for the season, I think. My FAVORITE Christmas song is by Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, it's called "Christmas Song" (posted below). It is so wonderful, simple and to the point. This holiday, and year round for that matter, is all about "love, love, love".



Love you! Hope you have a wonderful and love-filled Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving holiday was great, we ate and spent time with both families and it was really fun. Here's the one picture we got of the entire event. Notice J's AWESOME mustache (which I'm so glad he shaved later that night). Oh, and I have changed my hair color, so this is the first picture of the dark-haired Karen.

More Tito Antics

Okay, so maybe our Boxer isn't the smartest dog around. We found him like this the other night. It may not be very clear from the picture, but Tito is actually stuck in the slipcover of our couch. See, it has/had a medium sized hole in it from Tito's younger days and he somehow got trapped in that hole. Poor thing, doesn't he look embarrassed!

What My Kitchen Looked Like on Sunday

My husband worked all day on Sunday to get the kitchen to this point.



Needless to say we ate out all weekend long. But it feels so much better, you probably can't appreciate that unless your kitchen, too, felt like it was a cave.

I love that my husband knows how to do all this stuff. He's the best! And with any luck we'll have a new ceiling before December :)

What My Kitchen Looked Like on Saturday

Our home was built in 1978 and for some reason there was a trend of building dropped ceilings to accommodate the ultra-hip flourescent lighting. Well, we are no longer trendy by the 1978 standard.



My husband spent all day Saturday tearing out the drywall & framing and rewiring all the electrical in the ceiling. It wasn't finished by the time he quit at 9 PM Saturday.

Heritage

We celebrated my grandmother's 80th birthday this month. This is a picture of (from right) my grandmother, mother and me.

This is a picture of (from left) my husband, me and my grandmother.

In the background is a quilt that my mom and her sisters had made with pictures of my grandmother and her offspring. It was a great night and I'm glad to have such a talented grandmother to look up to.

Catching Up

Here's a movie we took of Hikia on the trampoline ride-thing at Circus Circus. You probably can't tell from the clip, but the guy tells her it's time to get off and she keeps jumping :) That girl is adorable.

Catching Up

These are photos from when we went to Las Vegas to meet Kevin & Sara and the girls when they visited this summer. We met up with Paula & Adrien for dinner one night. We also went to the Circus Circus Adventurdome with the girls. The Adventurdome is built out of pink glass, that's why the photos at the bottom have that pinkish tint.

Catching Up

This is a picture from when Spencer was in Primary Children's Hospital after taking a tumble down the mountain. He broke his jaw and had to have it wired shut for a few weeks, but he's perfectly fine now! This happened a week or so before his birthday so he didn't get to eat any cake on his actual birthday. After they took the wires out my mom (grandma to Spencer) asked him what kind of cake he wanted now that he could eat. He asked her for "that Mexican sheep cake you make", turns out he meant "Texas sheet cake". I guess he was close enough! Cute.


We're so thankful he recovered well and was so strong through the whole thing. We love you, Spencer!

Fall

We took a drive through the canyon a few weeks ago and these are some pictures we took. Isn't Utah beautiful in the fall? We kind of missed the bright fall leaves, but the mountains are gorgeous no matter the season.

The Result

So this is what the end result looked like. I'm not the best photographer, especially when taking pictures at night, so sorry if these are blurry. I wished the white of the spider web was more noticeable, and all the big spiders fell down after they were taped up, so I'll have to figure out a solution for that next year. But I think it turned out well. What do you think?

Monster Mash

I found out this weekend that I can get some of the Halloween decorations I've been wanting for free (yay) and I've been really excited. The picture below is the look I'm going for, after I have all the decorations up I will post a picture of my own house so we can compare.

I also found a great pumpkin "carving" idea from Martha Stewart. Isn't that so cute? Just put a mask on your pumpkin and after Halloween you'll still have Thanksgiving decorations. Love it.

Halloween

I love Halloween. I don't like being scared, but I think it's fun to dress up and get free candy. I do, however, think I'm too old for trick-or-treating, so I settle for decorating instead. My house would look like Martha Stewart's this time of year if I had the millions to pay for it, so I put out a couple of pumpkins and settle for some wickedly designed cupcakes to fulfill my creepy decorating desires.

me

• I don't watch network television (except for Hell's Kitchen & American Idol)
• I love vegetables and could easily be a vegetarian, but I'm not
• I love many music genres including: country, oldies, alternative, pop, rock, easy listening, classical, opera, emo... the list continues, but I'm getting bored
• I love dogs, we have 2-4 depending on the day :)
• I want to have as many children as I can -any day now, Heavenly Father... please :)
• I love the Food Network, TLC, HGTV and A&E
• I love (most) comic book movies but I've never read a comic book in my life
• I love children's and young adult literature
• I love Jane Austen
• My guilty pleasures are the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and the Disney channel
• I've traveled to Mexico at least three times and lived in Santiago, Dominican Republic for four months
• I don't speak Spanish
• I love crafts, but not scrapbooking (I don't have the patience)
• After working at a couple of food establishments, a gas station and as a telemarketer, I have worked for the same company for the last 7 years in 3 different positions
• I hate sweeping and mopping

I think I'm finished for now, I might add more stuff later.

The Power of Prayer

Call us crazy, but we're trying to teach our dog how to properly say his prayers...

Tito fell asleep like this the other night and it was SO funny, we had to take a picture. I would be so uncomfortable, I don't know how he could sleep kneeling like that. I wonder what he was praying for...

Meet Kimo

He's the newest member of our family (as far as dogs go). He's so sweet! He is growing like crazy and he fits in like the rest of the dogs - sleeps all day and night. We have him mostly potty trained now and that is SO nice. Isn't he adorable?