Sunshine

This past weekend was a really good one. It went by SO fast though!
Friday, April 25th...was my little brother Elliott's birthday. He would've been 17. Yeesh!
So we decided to have a little celebration for him...his favourite meal was always anything to do with potatoes, so my mom made a variety of potatoes haha. I made a cheesecake, which was yummy if I do say so myself haha.
Then we watched a few episodes of Spongebob, which was his favourite show. It was really fun.
Saturday, we celebrated Aunt Barb's birthday. She came up from Pittsburg for a couple weeks. We went to a chinese restuarant with all of the family. So it was another one of those family filled weekends haha. We tend to have a lot of those.

On Sunday Mark and I spoke in the Chinese Branch. Unlike Mark, I actually prepared my talk haha. The talk was about 10 minutes, and Mark seemed to think that was perfect. (I think he secretly had all of this planned!) Well since I can't speak Mandarin, my talk had to be translated. I knew this, but Mark reassured me that it would be fine. Well of course, when I finished and sat down..Mark's smiling ear to ear..."Well I guess I have 5 minutes :)". So apparently the translating took a little longer than expected haha. It worked out well though. Mark gave a very nice short talk.
I was very happy to hear that one of the missionaries was working with a family who was there that day. He told me that they were struggling with the idea of Eternal Families, so he was very excited, in hopes that they learned something and felt the spirit.
In Relief Society, I was also asked to sing a musical number. It was a busy, but good Sunday.

So yesterday was absolutely beautiful! It got into the 20's! Definitely something worth celebrating.
It was sad that I had to work inside of a building all day, but I have to say I am still lucky. I have three big windows by my desk, so I am able to stare outside whenever I feel imprisoned. I feel sorry for anyone who has to sit in a dungeon with no windows. It's so funny because I always do the weather reports for Mark, due to the fact that his office is in the basement.
So the sun has been shining in and warming me up every afternoon. The disadvantage to that is that it also puts me to sleep haha.
When I got in my car after work yesterday it didn't feel like spring, it felt like SUMMER! It was SO hot, my face just about melted off before I opened the window. It was so nice though, I had my window rolled down on the highway. Which I probably shouldn't do if I want to keep my hearing.
I drove out to Airdrie right after work to pick up a Harry Potter movie from my mom's house. Mark and I have started watching them again and we were missing the second one. So I wasted all of that gas, just so we could watch it. That's how fuel efficient I am during these 1.25 gas days.
I love Harry Potter, we're getting so into it again. I haven't seen them in forever! I can't believe Mark hadn't seen the 2nd one before, what a psycho!

So to any of you who are American Idol fans, I'm sure you are aware of Brooke White.
A family friend of ours happens to be a best friend of Brooke's, and that is why I started routing her on in the first place. Then I realized how cool she is, so I continued to like her. lol
She may not be the ultimate vocal talent, but she's a genuine down to earth LDS girl! Anyways, so I've been speaking to Nanette about Brooke's progress over the past little bit and thought I would post this email just for fun for you guys.

Hi guys!

Brooke just made it into the top five!
She is so surprised and so grateful that she is still on the show. She wanted to say thank you to everyone, so go ahead and read the email below. She sent it this morning.

Thank you and love you!
Nanette...

WHAT?! TOP 5?! SERIOUSLY... THANK YOU:)

hello to all you amazing people...Well... Tuesday night was strange, turns out I totally forgot the words and actually asked if I couldstart over... hmmm, I seriously have no earthly idea what happened and why it happened, I both laughed andcried when I walked off the stage....a manic moment! Live television is a trip... Let me tell ya!
I adored the song and committed my whole heart to it, and absolutely loved working with Lord Andrew Loyd Webber,what a brilliant and lovely man he is. Very kind...
I want you all to know, after what happened onTuesday, I was certain it was my time to go... I woke up early Wednesday morning and packed up everything and prepared to go back into the "real world"... I tried to make peace with it, tortured about the starting over incident, yet knowing I did everything I possibly could, ... and realizing that making the Top6 isn't so bad:) Knowing that Carly and Syesha gave such stellar performances, I felt mine paled incomparison.
And as far as these boys, they're notgoing anywhere.
Well... this is a crazy show andanything could happen, and it did... ALL BECAUSE OFYOU! A GIGUNDO (ji-goon-do) THANKS TO YOU ALL.... I AMSTILL HERE!!!! WHAT?!?!?WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
People, you took me to the TOP 5 and I am INCREDIBLY stunned and grateful, and overwhelmed to be here yet another week, very surreal.
Carly is such an amazing vocalist, and a great girl, I will miss her, she is wonderful. I've heard through the grapevine that there was voting by the masses,voting until fingers were falling off, seriously this thing is so beyond me, Really this is such a group effort in a big way, I promise you, that even though it doesn't always turn out the best, when I'm up on that stage I always give it my best... those judges will say what they will, then it is COMPLETELY out of my hands, and in yours, and I just want you all to realize, in all seriousness, we're all in this together!
It is a collaborative effort! I thank you, truly and sincerely, I want you to feel of my gratitude. When I started this whole thing, waiting in line in Philadelphia for 20 hours to audition, I thought it was a long shot to even get through the first round, I'm absolutely floored that I made it tothe TOP 5...
Now it's on to Neil Diamond, were singing two songs this week, I thought our schedule was crazy before, its about to get impossible, the pressure is definitely on, but I am super grateful and looking forward to having some FUN with these songs! Y'all areamazing, and I am so glad you all could be a part of making this happen...
Love,Brooke:)


She had mentioned that Brooke was able to make it home on Easter Sunday and they LET her go to church. (Don't you love the freedom)
Apparently she brought David Archuleta and Nanette was his teacher in Sunday school. She said it was hilarious how all of the young women "swooned" over him. haha It's a funny world.