Does your Mom have a blog?

Mine does. And I just wanted to say to my friends, cousins, aunts, grandma's, in-laws, etc. who read my blog but don't have their own that it's free and really easy to start your own. And you need one. Because I want to know what you're up to. To start, look up. At the top of a screen is a little link that says "Create Blog". Go ahead, click on it. Hey, are you still reading this? Get a move on.

Three down, two to go

Leavitt family weddings, that is. It was fun being at home to help prep for Nathan and Ashley's wedding. I got to help sew favor bags and table runners. See? So cute!

I got to watch my mom make the flower arrangements for the dessert buffet and watch my sister make those awesome brownie pops. Sadly, I didn't get a close up so I'm afraid you can't fully appreciate their awesomeness, but they really were amazing. And see the lemons, I got to make lemonade with those after the reception. I'm gonna share that recipe sometime.I got to see people I haven't seen in a very long time.
My brother Jacob and my Aunt Trish.Five generations Collin, My dad, Grandpa Cal, Great-Grandma Eloise, me, Zach, GrantMy mom, who was exhausted from trying to keep her grandson from jumping into the fountain My sister Leann

Cal, Dean, Me, Collin and my in-laws Suzie, Ron and my brother JacobCal, Lindsay, Natalie, Nadene, MelissaGarrett, Randall, Skylar, Jacob, Noelle, Dean, Wende, anonymous bride and groom

BartSteve, photographer, Nathan and AshleyWende, Emily, who arrived from China just hours before, and a friend

And my husband. He couldn't come for the whole month because he jad some work to do, including a trip to China, where he got me those pearls. And that bag. And I just wanted to show them off. And I'm working to get him to post pictures. Stay tuned.

P.S. Jacob gets a prize for being in the most pictures.

P.P.S. That's just a handful of my family. Would you believe it?

And here we have Idaho ...

So, what did the boys do during our month long trip to Idaho?

They learned a new word (vroom vroom)
They ate cherries right off the tree (seeds and all)

They cooled off in the river.

Grant learned how to drive a boat; they have relaxed driving laws in Idaho :) And they single handedly postponed my brother's wedding. I don't really want to talk about that. Read about it here instead!

We're ba-ack

Perhaps you have noticed my prolonged absence from blogging. I didn't want to announce it on my blog because, well, I didn't want a burglar to know and rob my house while I was gone. We've been out of town for a whole month visiting the spud state, and other places too. But we're back at home and nobody better think of burglarizing our place while I'm here with my pepper spray and set of well-sharpened kitchen knives. There are lots of stories to share (including an adventure over seas) so stay tuned.

One hundred and one posts

We went to Atlanta a few weekends ago to visit Ben and Rebekah and family. They were awesome to show us around even though they are expecting a baby at any minute.

Here they are, looking like a bunch of models.

And here we are, looking like a bunch of frazzled tourists.

Look at the pose Hazel made. Honestly, these people are naturals.The boys found the only patch of dirt at Stone Mountain.And Zach climbed the top. Thumbs up Zach. I loved Atlanta. A lot. Thanks Ben and Rebekah!

Oh Snap

I have a confession to make. I majored in Communications. There. I admit it. I spent my time at BYU learning things like the definition of email (that's jargon for electronic mail). I'm pretty sure I spent at least 12 credit hours doing crossword puzzles with my friends while earning A's and B's. But I had to do some hard stuff too, like once I had to take this really hard class where I wrote for the newspaper. I had to write news stories like "Dance Party Promotes Values" and "Utah Valley Symphony Strings up for Concert". Please note that I did not write the headlines, but the stories aren't much better. It's sad, I know. And you can imagine my shock when I graduated and my 20,000 classmates who also graduated in Communications were all willing to work for $9/hour.

Today I got my June BYU News electronic mail message. It seems my beloved BYU Communications staff have been busy with the important task of counting the swear words in teenage films. So says the article: "This may come as a darned surprise, but teenagers catching a teen movie this summer can expect to hear half as many swear words as their parents did 25 years ago at the theater." How do they know? They watched the top 30 movies from the last three decades (90 movies total) and counted up all the swear words. It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. I'd love to see these three BYU professors watching teen flicks with their clipboards, checking off lists of swear words. Was that a h@?!? Confirmed. Did they count heck and darn? How about snap? shoot? fetch? I'm glad my school is doing such important work. Aren't you?

Every state I live in, the drivers seem a little crazier, more aggressive, more impatient than they did back home. Now it all makes sense:

Where the worst drivers live