Friday Family Face -Taylor

TGIF & Happy Halloween. This week we are spotlighting Taylor.



Taylor is Eric & Jeannette's 3rd child & youngest daughter. She is 18 & graduated from high school this past June. She is currently attending junior college. Taylor is the goalie for her JC'S soccer team. She is a great artist & would love to go to art school. She is also an avid reader & loves old movies.

I got the following info about her from her my space:

She Loves, Loves, Loves, Loves soccer, art, reading, mangas, BLEACH,animes, her dog Paluche, her church, the 1930's.

Music: Basically anything, Evanescence, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Alanis Morrisette, Monty Python's Spamolot, Wicked, Disturbed, Jack Johnson, she really likes the song "Remember the Name" featuring Fort Minor, good stuff...and so on and so forth

Movies: Pride and Prejudice, Penelope, The Breakfast Club, An Affair to Remember, Funny Face, Where the Heart Is, All Harry Potter, and soon to be the Twilight Movie, and anything with Fred Astaire!

Books: TWILIGHT! Harry Potter, Mangas, The Vampire Diaries, The Black Dagger Brotherhood, The Host, basically all my books deal with either vampires or the supernatural

I asked Taylor some questions & these are her responses:

Spouseʼs name? Ummm I don't have one but I'll make one up...Papagorgio

Job description: I am sort of like a nanny

Where do you live? In my own little bubble

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Seattle, Washington

Happiest childhood memory? Every memory that includes family

Happiest memory of teenage years? Graduating High School!

What makes you happy? Family, art, soccer, church!

What makes you laugh? My friends, myself, books, stupid people haha

What makes you cry? Losing friends, movies, mean people

What scares you? Being stabbed, Losing a member of my family

What has been your biggest challenge or something you struggle with? College and schoolwork

Who has been the biggest influence on your life, or who is your hero? My parents, without a doubt, are the reason I love life and live it to the fullest

If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today? Hug everyone I knew and tell them that I love them and to not be afraid, that we will see each other again in the life to come

Before you die, you would like to: Get married, see my siblings get married, get my patriartical blessing, see the next generation of Langston's be brought up

What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be either an illustrator for books or a computer animation artist

What is your ultimate goal in life? To live it the way it's meant to be lived

What has been your greatest accomplishment? Staying true to myself and not making stupid decisions based on what others think I should do. I make my own life

What do you think is the worldʼs biggest problem? Hate and Violence

Are you a spiritual person? 100% yes, with all of my being

What is something you believe in? I believe in my Heavenly Father and that he will help me to choose the right in all that I do and that he will help me make a difference in someones life



What has been your hardest decision in life so far? Where I'm going to go to school and if I want to stay in school

What are your goals for the next 5 years? STAY IN SCHOOL! haha and already have a career as an artist forming

What are you really good at? Soccer and art...Drawing makes my world go round

Do you weigh yourself? And if so, how often? Every now and again...it's not an obsession to stay teeny tiny



What song describes you & your life? Good Enough by Evanescence

What are you most proud of? The person I've become

What is something no one knows about you? I LOVE mangas and anime!! (Japanese art)

Are you a dog or cat person? DOG!!!



Are you a morning or night person? Definitely a night person

What is your pet peeve? Guys who get attached too quickly

What do you love about your spouse? Umm what spouse?? haha

When & where did you meet your spouse? We're going to meet when he gets home from his mission!!!


When & where you married? It's going to be the Salt Lake Temple!!!!

What is your theme song? Remember the Name by Fort Minor!!!

What celebrity crushes did you have as a teen? Orlando Bloom, James Marsden, Collin Farrell

One thing you love about your body? My calves...they are toned!



Something on your mind lately is? When can I get married?!!!! haha

Your life would be more simpler if? I wasn't so complicated

What surprises you most about your adult life? That I made it this far!!!

Who would you love to meet living or dead? President Gordon B. Hinkley, or any Prophet of the church for that matter


What is the nicest compliment anyone has offered you? That I was a genuine person

Name 2 objects you use in your everyday life: Goalie gloves and make up

What are you going to be for Halloween? A creepy Doll

What are you going to do for Thanksgiving? I'm not sure but it involves family!!!! YAY!!!

What are you going to do for Christmas? Remember Christ's birth

Favorite food or drink? Shirley Temple

Favorite food or drink that is not good for you? haha just about everything I eat

Favorite treat or dessert? Strawberry Shortcake

Favorite ice cream? Cookies n cream ice cream

Favorite thing to do or favorite pastime? Anything to do with art!!!



Favorite place to eat out? Del Taco, or La Fagota

Favorite vacation spot or place to travel? Tahoe, Nevada

Favorite color? Red, Black, and White

Favorite movie? Emma

Favorite book? Twilight series and Harry Potter

Favorite decorating style? Gothic

Favorite day of week & why? Friday!! Because it means the weekend is coming!!!

Favorite time of day & why? Sunset...it's breathtaking

Favorite thing about yourself? My eyelashes, they're ridiculously long!

Favorite memory of Grandma & Grandpa Manning? Never knew them :(


Favorite holiday & why? Christmas! There's just sooooo many good things that come along with it

Favorite possession? My family

What is your motto? Remember you are a daughter of God, and no one but yourself can take that away

Your advice to others? Be yourself, because no one else will do it as good as you can!

One word that describes you? Amazing

Well there you have the amazing Taylor. I love having her as my niece. Next week we will be spotlighting Zak (Andrea's oldest son).

Don't forget that Monday is show and tell. You can post what you did for Halloween. I want to see pics of everyone's costumes or parties you attended.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Today is Halloween. This is one of my favorite holidays of the year. Not my very favorite, but in my top 3. These are some of the reasons I love Halloween:

1) Candy
2) Trick or Treating (even though I don't get to go anymore, I love to pass out candy)
3) Decorating my house & yard
4) Dressing up
5) Candy
6) Halloween music.
7) Halloween movies
8) My next 2 favorite holidays are coming up quickly
9) Carved pumpkins
10) Did I mention candy?

Below are some clips of some of my favorite Halloween music & the movie trailer clip from my all time favorite Halloween movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula". And for Taylor & Danica I have included the movie trailer clip to "Twilight" coming out in a few weeks.


"This is Halloween" from the Nightmare Before Christmas Movie


"Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Kicker Five


"Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo from Nightmare Before Christmas movie


Bram Stoker's Dracula


Twilight



Happy Halloween everyone. Hope you have a safe day & night. Be sure to post on Monday about what you did on Halloween.

And check back later today for the friday family face. This week it's all about Taylor.

What are your favorite things about Halloween? Leave a comment with your favorites.

Busy Weekend

Last weekend (Saturday) Dad and I (Jodi) got up at 7:30 am (Yes earlier than Kim & Mike) to take out the grass in the back yard. We started taking it out and then realized that we needed to remove the old sprinkler system and replace it in the Flower bed to with a drip irrigation system. After we went to Home Depot to get the stuff for the drip irrigation system. We came home and took out the old sprinklers and installed the drip irrigation system.

After we did that it was 1:30 pm and 85 degrees. It was too hot to continue, so we took a break. We started removing more grass around 4:30 pm and stopped at 6:30 pm (it got too dark).

Then on Monday, I had Jeffery Buys (the son of Jeff & Sherri Buys) come over and remove the remainder of the grass. (My back and legs hurt too much to finish). It took him about 1 1/2 hours to remove the rest of the grass.

That was our weekend project. We will probably put in a deck sometime in the future.

Weekend Warriors Part I

This past weekend Mike & I decided to attack our storage room & start making it into the game room we have been talking about for the past 3 years. What? you say. Kim is actually going to get something accomplished? Yes I did. Well, not completely. But at least we got started.

The saga began on Saturday morning, we got up early at 8am (yes, this is early for us on the weekend) & started unloading the room.

This is the before photo of the room. See how much stuff we had piled up in there.

We took everything out to the back yard & sorted everything into 3 piles. A keep pile, a sell pile & a trash pile. Luckily the sell pile is the biggest. I was pretty proud of myself, I put alot of MY items in the sell pile. Anyone who knows me very well knows that this can be considered a miraculus event. The hardest thing for me to part with is my doll collection. I may end up keeping one or two of the dolls but for now, they are all in the sell pile.

I kept trying to put Mike's items in the sell pile but he is more attached to his items than I am to mine (hard to believe). He kept saying that his son Brandan might want it (I highly doubt it) or he wanted to keep it for himself (this is more likely the truthful answer). Even if we had no use for the stuff. I told him I didn't want to hear anymore complaints about my stuff. He was worse than me with parting with his stuff. I guess God wasn't in the mood to grant 2 miracles in the same day.


After sorting, we (I mean Mike) then pulled out the nasty teal blue carpeting. Seriously, who puts such a ugly color of carpet in their house? Every room in our house has this carpet. Can't believe we are starting to get rid of the hideous carpet (can you tell I don't like it?). Here is Mike pulling out the tack strip & the nails.

Next was removing the ugly wall paper border (can you imagine this border with teal blue carpet?). When we bought our house, almost every room had some sort of ugly border, but Mike took it all down except for this room. He liked the sun, moon & star border. I on the other hand have always hated it. Finally, it too must go bye bye.

This process took amost 3 hours as this particular border did not want to cooperate in the removal process. It was quite stubborn. We tried using wall paper remover, but that didn't work too well. What finally ended up working was good old TSP (trisodium phospate). I had to go to the store to track some down. Nowadays you can't find any TSP with phospate in it. They all say "phosphate free" (at least in California). But I guess it is not the phosphate that makes the glue come off the wall cause it worked.

Mike then had to put molding around the french doors & textured the wall around the doors. He put in the french doors earlier in the year, but had never put up the molding around the door, or textured the wall around the door. I forgot to take a pic of this.

By the time he got done it was about 8pm. We decided to call it a night as Mike still needed to cook steaks for dinner (see why I married him?).


We got up Sunday morning early (8am) and started on the room again. I know, it was the sabbath, but I am the black sheep in the family & our ox was in the mire. Even though we had pushed it in the mire. Today was painting & putting in the floor. Here is Mike painting the walls. This is the first room in our house that will have color on the walls. I told Mike that I will now be wanting every wall in our house painted. He wasn't too thrilled as he hates painting. We painted the walls "Vulcan Grey". I did paint some of the trim.

Grey? Why grey? Well we are doing a coca cola game room & I found a room online that was done in the similar style & it had grey walls. I liked how it looked with the coke red & green accents.


Here is Mike putting in the black & white checkerboard peel & stick tiles. Jesse called them lick & stick tiles. Good thing they weren't actually lick & stick. It would have taken us a year to put them in. My job was handing Mike the tiles & throwing the paper backing in the trash can. See, I helped in the room.

Ta da!!!! The room is almost complete. All we need to do now is add shelves & bring in the game room stuff. We won't be able to do that until next weekend. I will post next week when the project is finally complete.

We also are having a yard sale this Saturday to sell the stuff in the sell pile. What ever doesn't sell, gets sent to the thrift store. Hopefully! Who wants to take bets?

Kim

How much does it cost to drive?

Want to know how much it costs to drive somewhere? Find out at CostToDrive.com, the easiest way to discover how much it costs to drive anywhere in the US.

A friend of mine just told me about this website. It's pretty cool. You put in the address you are driving from, to the address you are driving to. You also put in the year, make & model of the car you are driving. It then calculates how many miles you will drive, the amount of time it should take you to get there, how many gallons of gas you will use & the cost. Right now it is basing the cost on $2.86 a gallon.

This website would come in handy when planning a trip somewhere. So you know ahead of time how much you should be spending on gas. It also helps in figuring out what it costs you to go to/from work or school.

I have to warn you that this website can be somewhat depressing, , but not as depressing as a few months back when gas prices were out of control.

I drive 46 miles round trip. I just figured out that it is costing me $5.00 a day to drive to/from work. That is more than I thought I was spending. So I am a little depressed. Can you imagine what I was paying when gas was $4.65 a gallon? I hate to think about it.

This is the car I drive (the blue Hyundai & not the other gas guzzlers in the photo). Luckily Brandon & I carpool so I only have to drive every other week.

Go try it out for yourself & put in comments how much it costs you to drive to/from work or school.

Kim

Monday Show and Tell - Anything Halloween

The most dreadful day of the week is here again. It's Monday!!!! Time for show and tell. This weeks theme is "Anything Halloween".

I was trying to think back to my favorite Halloween and you know what? I can't remember a specific Halloween being the best. Probably as my memories of my childhood have faded. I remember my favorite costume was the year I was a greek goddess. I also do remember going trick or treating and worrying that someone might egg us or run us over. And that we were suppose to only go to houses of people we knew so we wouldn't get something poisoned or a needle in our candy (we never followed this rule & we never did get poisoned & never found a needle in our candy). Yes even then, Moms had to be a little paranoid.

I remember going to the school carnival each year. I remember loving Halloween and dressing up and we couldn't wait for it to get dark so we could go trick or treating. I remember coming home after trick or treating & all of us kids sitting on the living room floor, emptying our loot of candy & trading candy with one another. I always wanted the Snicker bars. This was the best part of Halloween. I remember Mom telling me that I was too old to trick or treat when I turned 16, but I still dressed up and went out trick or treating with my friends. All in all, I have nothing but warm loving memories of Halloween.

And then when I became a parent, Halloween was still fun as now I had to be the one to make the Halloween costumes, take Brandon out trick or treating and be the paranoid Mom. When we lived in El Cajon, I would always take Brandon over to Mom & Dads neighborhood for trick or treating. We lived in an apartment building & never went trick or treating there. Everyone knows the good candy is in the residential neighborhoods with houses.

To this day, I still love Halloween. My favorite movie to watch this time of year is "Dracula" with Gary Oldman & Winona Rider. There is something about this movie that I love. I haven't watched it yet this year, but I still have a few days until Halloween. I'll have to borrow it from Danica as I can't find my copy.



I'm so looking forward to this Friday night when all the ghosts and goblins come trick or treating to my door. I have about 1000 pieces of candy to pass out. My boys are hoping that we have lots of candy left over. We'll see.


To get you in the mood for Halloween, enjoy a few more Halloween costume photos I found this past week.
This photo is dated May 1966. But we all know that Halloween isn't in May. Mom must have been a procrastinator and didn't have the photo developed until some 7 months later. So the photo must have actually been taken in Oct 1965. The house in the background is our house on Ellen Lane. I remember wearing my Greek Goddess costume. It was my favorite costume of any Halloween. Probably would have looked better if I had been a little older & had boobs.

This photo says it is 1966. I don't remember dressing up as a bride, but here is the proof. Funny how I can remember the costume from the year before, but this one I had no memory of.



This photo I don't have a date for it. But from the looks of us, it must have been in the 1970's sometime. Check out mom!!! Dad obviously took the photo. I wonder if he dressed up? I have no clue as to what I was suppose to be. This is the only photo I have from Halloween for all 5 of us kids.



The next 3 photos are of my Grandson Gunner. He was only a little more than 2 months old when these photos were taken last Halloween.


This 1st photo is so cute. Gunner is wearing the pj's that I got him from Old Navy. It says "Bone to be wild"on the pj top. The bottom had little skeletons all over. He had fallen asleep & must have been dreaming about something that made him happy (probably me).
In these last 2 photos, Gunner is wearing the M&M outfit that Mike & I had bought for him from the M&M store in Las Vegas. It came with a hat. I wonder why he isn't wearing it. This was Gunner's first Halloween costume.
Well that is the end of my Halloween photos. I was going to show you one last photo of the scariest room in my house but the photo didn't turn out. Too bad. It was of what is suppose to be our game room. It had been our storage room for about 2-3 years. This weekend we decided to clean it out and make it our game room. We didn't get it quite done. I will post photos later of our progression if I can get the photos down loaded correctly.

Next Monday you can post on what you actually did on Halloween. Did you go trick or treating? Did you go to a party? Did you pass out candy to the little kiddies? Report on "How I spent my Halloween" on next Mondays Show and Tell. Did you notice that I was milking Halloween for all it was worth?

Happy Halloween!!!!

Kim

Happy Anniversary!

After searching my pictures, I realized that we don't have very many of just the two of us... there's always these 4 boys trying to get in on the pictures. Good thing they are so good looking!
No matter how hard I try to get a good/serious picture of us, it just doesn't happen!

So, today is Jamey & my 21st wedding anniversary! Can you believe it has been 21 years? I can't! It sure has gone by quickly, seems like yesterday we were just teenagers newly in love & dating.... who would have thought that 4 sons, lots of exciting events & 21 years later - we are still together. I must say though, it has been the best 21 (26 if you count our years together before we were married) of my life! Jamey truly is my best friend & I love him more & more every day. I know there were some people (won't name any names) who said that our marriage wouldn't last 6 months (or was it 6 weeks?)... I should have gotten in on that bet! Actually, that little wager made us only work harder at being happily married. Not to say we haven't had hard times, but I think that sometimes the hard times make the good times SO much better. The day I married Jamey I never thought that it could get any better, but it has. More than I could ever imagine!
So Jamey, here's to another 21 wonderful years (actually more since we are so young :o). You are the one I look forward to seeing everyday (the kids are a close second) & miss you terribly when you are out of town. I am happy that we found each other & become such good friends (besides everything else)... You make me the happiest girl around! Thank you for all that you do for me - your actions speak louder than words! Happy Anniversary baby, I love you!!

Friday Family Face - Andrea

It's that time of the week to spotlight another family member. This week we are lucky to learn about my sister Andrea.

Andrea is the youngest of 5 children in the Langston family. She & Jamey have been married for 21 years. They have 4 boys, Zak 18, Nate 16, Simon 13 & Noah 11. Andrea works in accounting for a foundation. She has lived all around San Diego county and plans to stay there.

Andrea says that she doesn't have any hobbies (per say)... she enjoys spending time with her family & dating her husband (especially now that her kids are old enough to stay home by themselves). She also enjoys hanging out with her girlfriends. Shopping is one of her most favorite things to do, especially with money, but she doesn't mind window shopping either. She has been known to like grocery shopping (but that was back when they were broke & that was the only kind of shopping she got to do). She loves the beach & the sun. She could go there everyday & never get sick of it (although now that she is older she keeps checking for skin cancer)...She also enjoys sitting on the couch & watching a good movie with her family.

She says that she is pretty boring. She has no aspirations to skydive, bungee jump or ride motorcycles (sounds like me)-in fact she barely looks forward to flying on an airplane to get somewhere.

I asked Andrea some questions & these are her responses:

Happiest childhood memory? Chasing Todd with a knife (ha ha, actually I don’t even remember this or any other special memory that stands out at the moment).

Happiest memory of teenage years? My first kiss with Jamey

Happiest moment in life? Getting married & the birth of my boys


What makes you happy? Spending time with my hubby & boys

What makes you cry? Just about anything sad, even commercials

What scares you? Dying or someone I love dying



What has been your biggest challenge or something you struggle with? Raising 4 teenage boys.

Who has been the biggest influence on your life, or who is your hero? At this moment, probably Jamey

Before you die, you would like to: See my kids serve full time missions, marry in the temple & play with my grandkids. Also serve a mission with Jamey.

What did you want to be when you grew up? A school teacher

What has been your greatest accomplishment? ?? My family? I don’t know I’m not done yet!!

What do you think is the world’s biggest problem? Stupidity & making the same mistakes over & over again.
Are you a spiritual person? Most definitely

What is something you believe in? I believe in the power of prayer (among other things)

What are you really good at? I dunno?

What are you most proud of? My family

What is something no one knows about you? I DON’T bleach my hair.

Are you a dog or cat person? Dog

Are you a morning or night person? Morning

What is your pet peeve? People who don’t know how to drive!

When & where did you meet your spouse? At a church dance when I was 14.


When & where you married? 1987 in Balboa Park, CA

What celebrity crushes did you have as a teen? Leif Garrett (ha ha ha)

Your life would be more simpler if? I could retire! :o)


What surprises you most about your adult life? That I still look good after all these years – ha ha just kidding.

Name 2 objects you use in your everyday life My car & toilet paper :o)

Favorite food or drink? Hmm, I used to love chocolate shakes but I think I am becoming lactos intolerant – so I’d have to say my new favorite are the orange smoothies at Jack in the Box.

Favorite food or drink that is not good for you? Pepsi & fried Mexican food

Favorite treat or dessert? Brownies with melted vanilla ice cream

Favorite ice cream? Vanilla with chocolate syrup

Favorite place to eat out? Depends on my mood.

Favorite vacation spot or place to travel? Haven’t been enough places to pick!

Favorite color? It changes everyday.

Favorite movie? Disturbia

Favorite thing to do or favorite pastime? Shopping or hanging out with my friends & family.

Favorite holiday & why? I love all the holidays, but Christmas is probably my all time favorite because it is a time to give to others.


Favorite decorating style? Casual/comfortable

Favorite day of week & why? Saturday because it is the day I get to spend with my family

Favorite time of day & why? 5PM because that is when I get home from work!

Favorite thing about yourself? I clean up nicely.

Favorite memory of Grandma & Grandpa Manning? Grandma waking me EARLY on Christmas morning to show me that it snowed.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? A Tropical Island

What makes you laugh? Just about anything funny

If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today? Go on vacation somewhere exciting with my family!

What is your ultimate goal in life? To raise my kids & see them be good upstanding men while they glow in the gospel of Jesus Christ


Favorite possession? My family

One word that describes you? I don’t know you’d have to ask my husband, kids or friends…. Maybe easy going – oops that’s two words!