Procrastinating Blogging Anything Useful

I guess I forgot that the holidays get busy. I keep planning on doing all of these fun things (as well as all of the not-so-fun things), but less than half of them seem to get done. One cool thing I've been able to do was "doctor up" (I'm not feeling bitter or anything that Robert is well on his way to getting a D.O. and I don't even have a B.A.) some old family photos. If they ever had copyrights, they expired around 10 to 50 years ago. I wanted to print them out, but Wal-Mart wouldn't let me. THEY AREN'T COPYRIGHTED ANYMORE! (Excuse me... I'm venting.) I wanted to print them out to put up for Halloween--since old picture kind of look creepy. Anyways, our camera broke :P, so these pics will have to work until I can get some more of the kids (at least after I catch up, but I don't wanna do that now). Well... here are the ones I have that Wal-Mart wouldn't print (*Shaking fist and searching for copyright law). And I promise to put up pics of the kids soon... errrmmm... relatively soon.


My Grandma Alice Edna Horrocks. Age 19... Pic taken 1926.

Grandpa Harvey Clark Gardner

Aunts Vontella, Verla, Ilene, Uncles Eldon, Larry (Dad wasn't born yet).

Same people--different picture.

My cute dad. (His picture was ruined, but I fixed his face and the backdrop. Yay for photoshop!)

Grandma and Grandpa Gardner (He died right after my parents married--never met him)

Some people I should know on my Mom's side.


Some more of Mom's fam that I SHOULD know.

One of the boys is Mom's Grandpa.

The cute girl in the middle is my Mom's Mom.

P.S. I'm working on my Mom's side--I WILL know who these people are soon. AND... I'll be taking some of them to the temple with me in November....(*insert utter excitement here!)

How Cute is That!

Combine General Conference, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, an ASL-interpreting auntie, then throw in uber amounts of cuteness--and this is what you get.

To Do list Update (two posts today)

Just in case you were wondering. . . I was able to accomplish all of my list (except printing pics, I felt too bad about heckeling my poor Mom and Dad--okay, I just got too busy to go to the store. And technically I didn't finish the invites) and we also did a few other things (including, but not limited to: putting up cupboards and most of hardware, spraypainting hardware, cleaning up JoJo's "accident," starting an awesome plaque to go over the stove, a few loads of laundry, Robert took Nana to the park, ummm. . . and there was other stuff, but I forget) by Friday night--that is, WITH Robert's help. Most of my days are NOT that productive. I usually sit in a pile of. . . piles. . . and eat lots of sugar because I'm so depressed :P. It was nice to have it all done for conference, though.

I'm a LITTLE Giddy

Today is a Ukelele type day, am I right? I feel so great after conference. I especially loved the talk Sunday morning by our prophet about change and loving before change gives us loss/enjoying the journey type stuff. I haven't watched general conference online since like 1999--and even then the feed wasn't very good. Luckily, back when we couldn't just go watch it at church because church was in our living room, we had a satellite radio (no, not XM radio--it just got the tv signal from satellites like they have for tv stations--besides conference, we also would listen to "Walker, Texas Ranger" shows when it was really dull and we had no tv--you'd hear a lot of fabric rustling when they were fighting--come to think of it, that may be why I thought this post was so funny--and yes, I know I blogged it before). I was worried we would have to zoom down to the church building or something if conference wouldn't come in. Nope. We had a high-quality veiwing experience. Well, I guess being in the mission field isn't as rough as it used to be--makes me feel kinda old. . . pardon me while I go calculate my age now.

No Time for a Post

So, I feel kind of guilty that I haven't posted anything for awhile. (Why, you ask? Let's just say I have a sister.) Anywho, I really just don't have anything to say/anytime to say it. So... I was about to make a to-do list (I'm a big fan. :D), and I thought that could be my post. Here goes:
Download pics from camera
Make bed
Clean kids' room
Make Shopping list
-Groceries
-Kids' clothes for next season
Clean Tub/Sink/Floor
(We're having company, so we must have a clean tub!)
Start Making Invites
Print Pics for Frames
(This one is sad)
Heckel parents about pics for frames... lol
PAINT THE CUPBOARDS!!!
Get new hardware, spraypaint, etc... for cupboards
Make new list this afternoon.

Warning: Reading this post and the links herin may take 2 hours

I have a new reason to live. So, last night we had a charming surprize visitor--Matt from TX. He interveiwed at LECOM, and we sure hope that he moves here, because I would love to be friends with their family. They seem absolutely awesome. I looked at their blog, and besides adorable pictures of their children and steller eyebrows on his wife, I saw a link to Cake Wrecks. I laughed so hard I got a headache. Seriously. I woke up this morning and couldn't stop laughing about this post in particular. BTW, read with discretion--I do NOT approve of all of the humor here, but it's all pretty harmless.

My Love Affair with Jazz

A-a-a-awhhhh. . . jazz. Forget whatever I said in my profile. . . there is no music but jazz. The honeyed tones accompanied by solos on romantic instruments, the excitement you can feel building in your toes all the way out to your arms. It gives me tingles in all the right places--more than tingles, actually, the fervor of it crawls all over my body. It's like all of those cliche occurences--maybe a first kiss--(although I never had a 1st kiss that wasn't staged--maybe like the 20th kiss?)--the way you feel when the man you love is down on his knee, and you know this time it's the real thing--no, I know, the way you feel reading Twilight. This is the music I can sing my heart out to. . . the stuff where I absolutely must get up and dance! Throw my arms up in the air! Puckishly run my fingers through my hair, and ignore the strange looks from the cat. Honestly, how can you not seductively sway your shoulders at least a little to "Girl from Ipanema?" "Everything" by Michael Buble is my favorite. There aren't many songs that make me quiver and shriek (much to the amusement of Joanna) everytime I hear them, but WOW! that song is exciting. ("Hey Ya" by Outkast does too, for some odd. Go figure.) That man is aptly named. "Buble" That's just what happens in my soul when I hear him sing. It "Buble-s." (not "bubbles," "Buble-s"--and don't forget the capital "B"). "Sway" makes me want to don a red sequined dress with a form-fitting skirt--slit to my knee on one side, long sleeves, thick red lipstick, fake eyelashes, and a large white flower in my hair. Mmmmm. . . and black stillettos. And of course I'm being twirled and dipped by my handsome husband--wearing an open white dress shirt and a black fedora too low over his eyes. . . and suspenders. Suspenders are hot. Can you see it? I want to go dancing!

Mine, Me, Myself, and I

So a few weeks ago in church, this amazing sister (Julia Reynolds) made a really good point--and I've been thinking about it ever since. I forget what the question was (Paul Dickenson asks some good ones), but she answered by saying that a lot of advertising is all about how having the product will give you power over other people. . . like by making your friends jealous, your kids happy, the opposite sex not be able to resist you. . . that sort of thing. Why do I have to be so power hungry? I would totally buy laundry detergent that makes people flock toward me so they could sniff my clothing--hey, I'd settle for one that made my husband do that.
I wish I were a more charitable person. I get so greedy--wanting the perfect house, the perfect image, the perfect kids, the perfect husband ("perfect" meaning having all these things utterly under my control). And why do I want these things? To influence people to like me? Probably. To get my way? Quite likely. To be happy? You bet. It just doesn't work that way.
Well, I was thinking about this when I went down with my friend, Danielle Bruening, to see Sister Julie B. Beck in Pittsburg. As the opening song started, I wrote down some questions I wanted answered (as is my habit). When Sister Beck opened up the meeting for questions I think my jaw just about hit my knees! I couldn't ask her any of my questions--they were all so shallow. I can sum them up for you here--"How can I make myself and everyone around me be perfect?" ("perfect" of course, meaning they would conform exactly to my standards). I've actually been super stressed about it. I want to be perfect and help my family be perfect, and not necessarily in some evilly concocted way. Even though I didn't ask her my question--she answered it directly. I took down this quote. "We don't get the dream here; we get the experience." This world wasn't meant to be like the Celestial Kingdom. I get it now--at least more than I did before. I love that quote. . . maybe I can put it on a super-cute plaque in my living room, and when I invite company over, they can say. . . awww, what a nice thought--Ali Mae is super cool. . . and then, they will be in my power! Mwah-ha ha ha! (Of course that means actually having enough control over my life that I'd have enough time to make such a thing; so I'm pretty sure that plaque will never happen).

Why I love Robert (In no particular order)

He looks super hot in his karate pants--even if he kind of looks silly using an exercize ball.

He takes Joanna to the beach. AND cleans her up afterward.

He says things like "rationalizing isn't THAT bad."

He does my bidding when it comes to fixing up the house. (Thanks for the new light and window shade, sweetums.)

He listens to my ramblings about how cool my friends are and he pays attention when I talk to him about the impressions I get when I go to church things. (Julie B. Beck in Pittsburg was great! I'm so glad I was able to go with my friend, Danielle, and then meet up with the other sisters.)

He practically cooks (good food!) the entire weekend.

He studies hard, but every so often, he makes me and the kids feel so comfortable before and after, that I hardly notice how much time he's taking to read his books.

He shows me up at a lot of things, actually, but that's okay, I'm glad I married up!

Glum, Glum (aka, don't read if you are susceptible to depression)

Okay, lately I've been in some sort of deep funk... I can't seem to do anything (at least not well), or turn my thoughts into more productive ones. Berate, Berate, Berate. (But Hey, at least I'm not interrupting people as much :D). So, I'm way behind on posting. I was going to sit down and throw up a few scrapbook pages, maybe talk about how awesome the plans I have to decorate my house are, ummm... I'm sure there was something else..., but really I don't feel like posting much right now. So here are a few pictures--you can make of them what you will. I might go take a nap.
Robert made good bread--4 loaves
Seth came to visit and interview at LECOM. Keep your fingers crossed.
My fairy prince. Apparently, when he sleeps, his wings come out. (*picture not staged--notice the princess blanket and dragon)
Our new floor.
Asbury park. They have cool puppets.