Weekend in Caliente!

Last weekend (Oct. 17-20) we went down to Jeanette's home town of Caliente, NV. It was the high school's Homecoming week and her younger brother's senior year. We left Thursday late afternoon and stayed the night in Cedar City. Friday morning we went the rest of the way to Caliente. We stopped in Panaca for the Alumni Assembly, it was fun to be back in the atmosphere and see Jeff so amazed and shell-shocked and the smallness of the school/student body! After the assembly we headed to Caliente, grabbed some lunch, then went back to Panaca for the Homecoming parade. Once again back to Caliente for settling and rest. After chatting with the family and dressing in some warm clothes, we headed for Panaca for the game. It was a very good, yet unexciting game. Lincoln won 74-8!!! Neal even got to carry the ball for a play.

On Saturday Jeff and the boys headed out to help Jeanette's dad on his new shed he's putting up. Jeanette's dad had surgery on his shoulder just over a month ago and is still recovering. They spent the majority of the morning out there working away. Us girls just kinda hung out in the house :). That evening we went out to dinner at a local "fast food" place (by fast food we mean waiting about 5-10 minutes for a burger!). Then played some games back at the house.

Sunday was church, an amazingly yummy dinner, and a long drive home.
It was good to visit with family and see/meet some old friends and acquaintances from Jeanette's growing up years. It never ceases to amaze her how fast all the kids she used to babysit grow up!

Here are some pictures of the weekend!

Tagged!!!

Marie tagged me, so here are my eights!

8 Shows I Love To Watch(Don't really watch a ton of tv, mainly because we only have digital bunny ears...but I'll list some I would like watch :) )

*Dancing With the Stars (Go Warren Sapp!!!)-I do actually watch this one now!
*Eli Stone-new show, like it so far
*Any competition on the Food Network
*Larry King Live
*NCSI
*Amazing Race
*Extreme Makeover, Home Edition
*Everybody Loves Raymond reruns

8 Favorite Restaurants

*Olive Garden
*Texas Roadhouse
*Cracker Barrel (that's right, hangin with the old folks!)
*Cafe Rio
*Red Robin
*Su Casa
*The Other place
*Smiths' Chinese on 9th & 9th :)

8 Things That Happened Yesterday

*Tried to stay awake at work
*Started my seasonal hot chocolate drinking :)
*Started a new thing on Facebook
*Spent an hour and a half at Walmart waiting for our stupid tire to be fixed
*Went to Jeff's mom's house
*Watched DWTS:Results (sorry Toni Braxton, your gone) and Eli Stone
*Did some work on the computer
*Got in contact with an old friend!

8 Things I Look Forward To
*Jeff's b-day
*Thanksgiving
*1-year anniversary
*Holiday sales in Avon
*Christmas
*Going to sleep at night
*Getting out of debt COMPLETELY
*Paying off the brown car

8 Things I Love About Fall

*Pumpkin desserts
*Thanksgiving
*Color-changing leaves
*Cool weather
*Sweats and slippers
*HOT showers/baths
*Rain
*Changing our clocks BACK on hour!

8 Things On My Wish List
*Jeff getting a raise or new job
*Get pregnant around the first of the year
*Nintendo Wii :) (with Wii Fit and/or Wii DDR)
*Be able to be a stay-at-home mom
*Happy and Healthy Children
*Family members being strong in the gospel
*Own our own business
*Go to Poland with Jeff

8 People I Tag
Matti, Angela, Christy, Tasha, Lynndi, Casey, Katie, Beth

Girls' night out!!!

Last night was a very much needed girls' night out! I (Jeanette of course) was invited by my sister-in-law Matti to join in as a sub to her Bunko group. This group of 12 ladies gets together every second Wednesday night and enjoys food, snacks, LOTS of laughs, very exciting rounds of Bunko, and PRIZES!!! They rotate houses and who's in charge of what. I've been a sub for them once before and, as people's lives change, am only 2 spots away from being a permanent member! I had a blast, and even won two of the three big prize "contests" (most Bunko's and Bunko on the 'lucky' box) and even got second place in the overall score! I only got on prize (there is a prize for everyone) and it was still a blast!

Bunko is a game you play with dice...it's kinda of hard to explain, so if you wanna learn about it you can google it. But it's a lot of fun and sure to give you some good laughs, especially when you're in good company.

Thanks again Matti for inviting me to play! And like I said last night, I'll sub anytime!!!

A busy, busy month!

So last month was another crazy and busy month. I felt like I never had time to sit down and get blogs written and pictures posted, and when I did have time I didn't have the camera with me or it was dead!

Anyway, it was a good fun month. Hanging out with friends, visiting with BOTH side of the family, going on a few free but fun dates, and working, working, working.

I'm including just a few random pictures that I had taken through out the month. When we were up at a baby blessing for my (Jeanette's) side of the family we got a family picture taken, and you'll see that. There are now 24 members of the Kevin and Ann Smith clan...and 25 on the way. NO we are NOT announcing anything, my sister-in-law Matti is expecting a little boy in late December/early January (you'll see the soon-to-be big sister, Bella, with Jeff in some of the pictures, we get to babysit quite often and LOVE it :) ). Anyway, enjoy the pictures! Also scroll down for two newer blogs as well!

A weekend with the Littlewoods!

I know this weekend was mentioned before (Bunny Bashing and Baby Naming), but I thought I would post some pictures of the beautiful girl that is the newest edition to the Littlewood family (Jeff's mom's side).

Here are some pictures of Alayna Joy!

A weekend with the Smiths!

I know it's over a month late, but we finally got some pictures from Jeanette's newest nephew

Deker Comfort Picanco!

He is now almost 2 months old, but his baby blessing was August 31st over Labor Day weekend. We had a lot of fun visiting with Jeanette's family and sharing that blessed event with them. Here are some pictures of the weekend!

The Senate Bailout Bill

This is the Senate Bailout Bill, all 451 pages of it including the pork earmark at the bottom.

Ed Morrissey put this list together of earmarks.

New Tax earmarks in Bailout bill
- Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502)
- Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503)
- 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504)

Tax earmark “extenders” in the bailout bill.
- Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308)
- American Samoa (Sec. 309)
- Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310)
- Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311)
- Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312)
- Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315)
- Railroads (Sec. 316)
- Auto Racing Tracks (317)
- District of Columbia (Sec. 322)
- Wool Research (Sec. 325)

Dave Ramsey's Bailout Plan

We listen to Dave Ramsey all the time and he mentioned that he has a plan for America during these rough economic times. His plan only costs $50b not the $700b that just passed in the Senate yesterday. Here is the link to his 3 step plan to stop the House from passing this tragedy of a bill. Below I have the plan that he has made.

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three steps:

Common Sense Plan.

I. INSURANCE

A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.

B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things:

1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage.
a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes.
b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while
working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.

2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs.

C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.




II. MARK TO MARKET

A. Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This keeps companies from being forced to artificially mark down bonds/mortgages below the value of the underlying mortgages and real estate.

B. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.




III. CAPITAL GAINS TAX

A. Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.

B. This move will be seen as a lightning rod politically because many will say it is helping the rich. The truth is the rich will benefit, but it will be their money that stimulates the economy. This will enable all Americans to have more stable jobs and retirement investments that go up instead of down. This is not a time for envy, and it’s not a time for politics. It’s time for all of us, as Americans, to
stand up, speak out, and fix this mess.

Happy Bunny (TM)

So this lady at work has this calendar with a bunch of bunnies on it...I know weird that just this last weekend I went bunny bashing. Anyhow this calendar has some pretty cool sayings. Like these:

• Whatever, you moron.
• Hating you makes me all warm inside.
• Nobody's perfect. I'm as close as it gets.
• Your ugliness cheers me up.
• I'm happy. Don't wreck it by talking.
• Don't blame me. I was born awesome.
• You go girl. And don't come back.
• Please stop existing, thanks!
• Hi, where is your off button?
• Time to go, gross people. You know who you are.
• A makeover? You need to be runover.
• I just realized. I don't care.
• I've been naughty. So what.

I looked it up online and here are some more sayings of this Happy Bunny (TM).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYN27cYoGmU