Letter from the Salt Lake County Mayor

I feel important!  Thanks Mayor Ben McAdams!  Yes I have been dreading doing my job lately, but i'm glad I can help these children cross safely.

Dear Cousins

McKenzie loves her cousins!  She hasn't seen her cousins on my side of the family in awhile.  She decided to write them a letter. She wrote 2 letters.  The first letter was to Chris's kids, my older Brother.  The second letter was to Kate's kids, my older Sister.  These letters are so cute, and so random!  The sweetness of an almost 9 year old.  I love my Kenzie Koo!

1st letter:

2nd letter:

Eyes Of Ember Cover

Here it is the Eyes Of Ember Book Cover.  It's Beautiful!  It makes me even more excited to go and read it. The release date for this book is April 6, 2013. Hurry up April 6th, and get here already!  What do you think of the book cover?  Also go check out the giveaway to win signed copies of Kiss Of Fire and Eyes Of Ember over at: http://www.rebeccaethington.com/2013/03/18/cover-reveal-eyes-of-ember/

Kiss of Fire

My friend wrote this absolutely amazing book called Kiss Of Fire.  The cover is beautiful, so romantic.  Don't you think?  The cover isn't the only thing I absolutely loved.  I loved her take on magic, it was so creative. It has just the right amount of romance, and it is clean.  It is so refreshing to have a book like that in this day and age.  The book sucked me right in.  It sucked my hubby in too!  He has been trying to figure out if the book were made into a movie who would play the characters.  That has started me thinking too.  It is such a good book!  If you are looking for a good book to read, then read this book.  Yon won't be sorry, and you will be thanking me for recommending such an amazing book.  I'm so excited for Eyes of Ember the next in the series to come out! April 6, 2013.

Here is a synopsis of what the book is about:

Joclyn Despain has been marred by a brand on her skin. She doesn't know why it appeared on her neck, but she doesn't want anyone to see it, including her best friend Ryland, who knows everything else about her. 
The scar is the reason she hides herself behind baggy clothes, and won't let the idea of kissing Ryland enter her mind, no matter how much she wants to. 
The scar is the reason she is being hunted. 

If only she knew that she was. 

If only she had known that the cursed stone her estranged father sent for her 16th birthday would trigger a change in her. 

Now, she is being stalked by a tall blonde man, and is miraculously throwing her high school bully ten feet in the air. Joclyn attempts to find some answers and the courage to follow her heart. When Ryland finds her scar; only he knows what it means, and who will kill her because of it.

Now head on over to:  http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Of-Fire-Rebecca-Ethington/dp/098848370X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1362451032&sr=8-2&keywords=kiss+of+fire

or: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kiss-of-fire-rebecca-ethington/1113727795

Order yourself a copy, read it, and go back and post a review!

Then head on over to:  http://alifeboundbybooks.blogspot.com/2013/03/blog-tour-guest-post-by-kiss-of-fire.html for Kiss of Fire blog tour March 4th - 29th to enter a contest for a free giveaway.  You could win a Kindle Fire Tablet Pre-loaded with Kiss of Fire and Eyes Of Ember.  If you read it, I would love to hear what you thought about it.

Christmas 2012

I'm really kicking myself for not posting this sooner.  I can't remember all of the details that I wanted to remember.  How many times will it take for me to learn to post about it right after it happens?  Hopefully this is the last time.  I love Christmas.  I really do.  I tell myself every year that I don't want to make it all commercial, get bogged down and get all stressed out.  Christmas should be fun, not stressful.  I always worry that we didn't get the kids enough.  I get caught up trying to do what other people are doing.  I'm tired of doing that.  I do not need other people's approval.  We can keep it small and simple.  It's the little things that matter most.  How much time you spend as a family making memories, not how much money you spend.

This year was better than all of the other years so far.  I did stress, but not as much.  I'm slowly learning.  This year we took the time to read every night until Christmas a Christmas story, scripture, and sing a song that went with the story and the scripture.  It was fun to do that.  It helped us remember the real meaning of Christmas.  The girls talk so much about the presents that they will receive.  Just to be sure they know what Chritmas is allI I ask them what is Christmas all about?  They always say it's about celebrating Jesus's birthday.  I think it's important to remember that.  The presents are important too.  I always tell them that it's good to receive presents and want them too.  It's also fun to give to others.

This year we made sugar cookies, and decorated them.  We put them on plates and delivered some of them as neighbor gifts.  Other gifts we gave homemade freezer jam, brownie mixes, and muffin mixes.  The girls had a good time going around delivering the gifts.  I'm so glad that I decided to do neighbor gifts this year.  I was feeling down, and it helped make me feel better.

This Christmas Eve was the first year since we have lived in this house that Matt didn't have to work.  Celebration!!!  This year we went over to my Mom's house to spend Christmas Eve with her and my Brother Quinn.  We had French Dip sandwiches, and other yummy foods and treats.  We played games, watched a movie, and of course read the nativity story.  We watched the animated one as well.  Then it was time to get the girls in their jammies.  We had them open their one gift on Christmas Eve Pj's of course.  They were so excited!  We statyed at my Mom's until 11 that night, then headed home.  Before we had left for my Mom's the girls made sure the special key was hung so Santa could come in, and the reindeer food was scattered to the reindeers could find our home.  We got the girls into their beds, and then we put out their gifts and went to bed.  It was nice to have Matt home with us this Christmas Eve.

I told Matt that I didn't want to open presents early.  It's so much better to make the day last.  I think Matt got a phone call on his phone around 7 am.  I said please don't answer it.  Go back to bed. He didn't answer.  We slept until about 8.  That was nice.  The girls woke up first and walked out to the living room.  We were waiting for them to come and wake us up.  They didn't.  We heard them going through there stockings, and so we had to hurry up and get out of bed.  It was fun to see the girls so excited.  We slowly opened our presents 1 at a time.  Matt put Christmas music on.  It was fun and nice not to be rushed..  The girls loved their presents.  Matt and I loved our presents.  It was a really good Christmas.

I hot glued all of the jewels onto the tackle box and filled the entire thing with precious jewels.  Maddie was so excited!

Matt's Birthday is the December 19th.  It always gets overlooked.  I feel bad.  I wanted it to be nice this year.  We had a little get together with Quinn and my Mom at her house.  I made a pumpkin cheesecake for Matt's birthday cake.  He had dropped me hints earlier in the year that it would be nice to have a nice bathrobe for Christmas.  I got it for his birthday instead.  Matt and I celebrated his birthday together while the girls were in school.  Matt really wanted to see The Hobbit.  So we did, and went out to lunch afterwards.  It was a fun date.  For once his birthday didn't get overlooked, and he was very happy.

He enjoyed his Christmas present a Kindle Paperwhite:

Matt did a good job for me.  He got me my lighthouse bathroom decor that I have wanted for a couple of years.  They are beautiful, I love the decor!

Yummiest Cornbread

February 9, 2013 our ward had a chili cook-off.  I love chili cook-offs.  So much fun.  I of course had to make my white chili.  It really is the best white chili.  Matt even labled it yummy white chicken chili.  It came close to winning.  I had a couple of people come up to me and tell that mine should have won yummiest chili hnnds down.  That really made my day!  Along with the chili cook-off they had a cornbread contest as well.  I of course had to enter.  I have the best recipe that I knew would win.  I won yummiest cornbread.  I got this lovely award and serving sppon for a prize.  It really made my night.  It made me so happy to see that all of my chili and cornbread was gone.  Too me that is a major compliment!  I left with a huge grin on my face. I so needed a night like that.  I have my sister to thank for giving me the chili recipe, and my good friend from the military Alysha for giving me the cornbread recipe.  I couldn't have done it without them.  Thank you girls!

The Holy Ghost

I was asked to speak at a baptism back in February.  It was our wards turn to do the talks, so Brother Peterson called me and my team teacher to ask if we would speak.  It made sense, we teach one of the little girls who was getting baptized.  I found this little talk on the Holy Ghost on Pinterest that I thought would be perfect:

I was so nervous on the day of the Baptism.  I do not like to get up infront of people.  I was to talk second.  My team teacher talked about Baptism.  She did a wonderful job.  Then it was my turn.  I started to speak, and my voice was shaky, and hands and legs were shaky.  I started speaking really fast.  Then when it came to share my Grandpa Zollingers experienc of when he received a warning from the Holy Ghost, I started to speak slower and was calmer.  My Grandpa's experience is very poweful.  Here it is:

I want to share a story about my Grandfather.  My grandpa liked to deer hunt, but wasn’t doing it as much as he used too.  One day he had heard one neighbor after another tell of their success with their deer hunts.  My Grandpa thought to himself that he would get in his jeep and go up Dry Canyon to see what he could do in just a few hours.  There was a lot of snow on the ground where he had to leave the jeep.  So he started climbing up the slope of the mountain.  He was constantly looking into the trees to see if he could spot a deer.  The sun was starting to set, so he had to push as hard as could while hiking up the mountain. 

Finally he spotted a deer lying down under a tree.  He sat down steadied his gun on his knee and shot.  My Grandpa knew he had hit the deer because it jumped up and hobbled off down the hill.  His better judgment told him to sit down and let the deer stiffen up and lay down, but instead of doing that he kept thinking of the time and thought he could get close enough to the deer to get off another shot.  So my Grandpa followed the deer nearly all the way down the canyon, then crossed over and went up the south slope of Logan Canyon.  It was there that my Grandpa was able to get another shot off killing the deer.    He cleaned the deer, and then wondered what he would do with it.  The sun was nearly down and his jeep was at least 2 miles up the canyon.  He thought should I leave him on the steep mountain; or go get the jeep and come back another day to get the deer? 

My Grandfather studied the area around him.  He could see two rocky ridges- one on each side of the hollow he was in.  Those ridges angled down toward each other forming a long V.  It looked like they never did meet at the bottom, but left a narrow pathway between.  As far as I could see there was a clean, unbroken path all the way to the bottom where the Logan River flowed.  My Grandfather remembered another time when he shot an elk near the summit of Mt. Logan and was able to ride it to the bottom by sitting on its body, pulling its head back and holding on the antlers while holding his gun in the other hand.

This looked like the answer.  He would ride it to the bottom, cross the river and hail a ride home and pick up his jeep tomorrow.  My grandfather dragged the buck into the bottom of the hollow, got hold of an antler, and oh, what a ride!  As they shot toward the opening of the V, my grandpa distinctly heard a voice say only one word.  “JUMP” Instantly he threw his gun and grabbed a limb of a shrub as he shot by.  The speed that he was going stretched him straight out.  He pulled himself up to a sitting position.  He couldn’t see the deer sliding down the narrow path.  Where was it?  My Grandfather crawled back up and got his gun and then started sliding on his backside down the path the deer had taken.  About 50 feet beyond the point where he had jumped off the dear, he found himself looking over a 50 to 60 foot cliff.  The deer was lying on a rock pile far below.  My Grandpa probably would have been killed if he hadn’t listened to that prompting from the Holy Ghost warning him of danger.  I’m so thankful for my Grandpa’s example in listening to the Holy Ghost so he could be safe, and that the Holy Ghost kept him safe.

I finished by sharing my testimony about the Holy Ghost.  I felt great when I was done and could sit down.  I'm so thankful to have the Holy Ghost in my life.  I'm grateful to have him testify to me when things are right, warn me when I'm in danger, and give me a red light when I need to stop what I'm doing and do something else.